A YEAR IN ENGLISH 



"W . H. KBY 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



G^np, Gtip^rig]^ ^ 

Shelf-.-J<r 

rXITED STATES OF A^IERICA. 















'^ 



^^<~ .V\-N 



:' -V 



■XIS^. 






'^fe^-r-''- 



4i^'^>r--^ 



A^"^ 



• N 



^ 

>*>:. 






.■i^-. 



M 



'^4 



-A 



y^rs- 



'' 4^ 



,s ^. 



^^ 



•^^l 
























■^ 'x'^ 
^{^.-X^^" 



YEAR IN EfiG 



^^^ 



FOR- 



PREPARATORY CLASSES, 



■BY- 




W, H. KEY, ^ 



Cx^*-. 



Professok of English and Modern Languages in Hendrix CoLLEfiE. 



COLUMBIA, MO. 

HERALD PUBLISHING iHOUSE, PRINTERS AND BINDERS. 






Entered according to the Act of Congress in the year 1889, by 

W. H. KEY, 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



PREFACE. 



In the endeavor to find a work on English grammar suited 
to boys and girls who are just old enough to begin the study 
of grammar in earnest, and more especially suited to those 
young people who are so unfortunate as to have grown up 
without a knowledge of this subject and with a habit of con- 
stant violation of the usages of speech, the writer has examined 
some thirty or forty works on this subject. 

I shall pass over those little works called '' Language Les- 
sons," etc. They are written for more primary classes and are 
all well enough in their place. They either do not pretend to 
teach the principles which underlie the structure of our lan- 
guage, or administer them in such diminutive doses and in the 
midst of such a profusion of other matter that very little 
impression is made upon the mind of the pupil. 

Ignoring these, the works examined may be divided into two 
classes. The first class, of which there is a large number, con- 
sists of books which are very popular and are much used 
in our common schools. But they are not only written in utter 
disregard of the teachings of the greatest scholars of the day 
but teach what is directly contrary to the principles of our 
mother tongue as established by the highest authorities on the 
subject. The student who has mastered one of these books, 
unless he can unlearn a large part of what he has learned, will 
find himself a cripple in the study of English through all the 
coming years. This is a matter of great moment and one that 
eVery teacher should ponder most seriously. 

The second class of which there is but a very small number, 
consists of books teaching principles that are supported by the 
most recent researches, and giving evidence of ripe scholarship. 

These books are not only not popular, but even the best 



4 PREFACE. 

teachers find it impossible to make progress with them in teach- 
ing the classes of students mentioned above. Yet for the 
teacher and for more advanced students, some of them are 
treasures of inestimable value. 

It has been my object to prepare for the class of students 
I have named a text book, simple, concise, and perfectly within 
their grasp, and at the same time in perfect harmony with the 
teachings of the most renowned English scholars of the day ; so 
that nothing need be unlearned in after years. 

Little else has been introduced than general principles and 
forms. For whatever may be said of the lack of grammar in 
English, these general principles and forms do exist and must 
be mastered before the student is prepared to appreciate a dis- 
cussion of the irregularities and peculiarities of historical 
development. These latter I have not introduced extensively, 
believing as I do that the class for whom the book is prepared 
are not ready to enter much into these things. They are 
to be acquired during the whole course of training in English 
and are to be found in other text books. 

In Part II. more space has been devoted to the correction 
of errors of speech than will meet the approval of some very 
eminent authorities. I am aware that familiar <^ntact with 
correct literary forms of English will give the student that 
accuracy and elegance of expression which nothing else can 
give. Yet, from close observation, I am convinced that, with 
those who have been so unfortunate as to form habits of incor- 
rect speech, this process is exceedingly slow and can be 
wonderfully facilitated by thorough drill in pointing out and 
correcting errors wherever found. Human nature, everywhere 
the same, needs the good example — the model, but it also needs 
the explicit and positive *' I forbid,'^ to keep it from going 
astray. 

In the preparation of this Mttle book I have not proceeded 
upon any presumption of maturity of scholaa*ship upon my part. 
I confess myself but the merest beginner in the great fields of 
English study which stretch away beyond the reach of my 
vision. But for those who are behind me I have marked out 
what I believe to be a simple, safe, and coxrect way through the 
first stage of their progress in this most delightful stud^ I 
have outlined what I desire my own preparatory classes to 



PREFACE. 



master. For them this work has been prepared in this 
pamphlet form. If other teachers find it to their liking, I shall 
rejoice to know that its preparation has been of service to them, 
and shall put it in better form. 

I shall here acknowledge my indebtedness to almost every- 
thing that I have found written on the subject of English 
grammar by any acknowledged authority. I have made free use 
of all such writings. But above all would I acknowledge my 
indebtedness to Dr. Edw. A. Allen, of the University of 
Missouri. To his thorough and delightful instruction I owe 
the inspiration which has led to the acquisition of what little I 
may know correctly of the English language ; and to his kindly 
assistance I owe many important suggestions, 
Hendrix College, June 17, 1889. 




NOTICE TO TEACHERS, 



This little book is not intended to take the place of the 
teacher or to relieve him of the work of teaching. The 
exercises given may be increased and varied by the teacher. 
The class should write lists of examples and sentences illustrating 
the various principles, etc. 

To repeat such things over and over in the text-book at 
every step of the way is confusing in the extreme and causes 
the student to lose sight of the main principles and their 
connections with each other ; besides there are many classes 
which need more drill than others. The teacher must use his 
discretion in the matter, and adapt his teaching to his class. 
No amount of text-book matter can take the place of appropri- 
ate illustrations and explanations from the black-board by the 
intelligent, enthusiastic teacher. 

Part II. should be taken up as soon as the class is well 
started in Part I. and the lessons made to alternate in the two 
parts of the book. 



CONTENTS, 



^-^lEll' I. 



FORMS. 

SECTION. 

Introductory — 

The Sentence 1-2 

Analysis 4-8 

Parts of Speech — 

Noun 11 

Pronoun 12 

Adjective 13 

Verb 14 

Adverb 15 

Preposition 16 

Conjunction 17 

Interjection 18 

CLASSES OF PARTS OF SPEECH. 

Nouns 20 

Common 21 

Proper 22 

Abstract 23 

Collective 24 

Pronouns 25 

Personal 26 

Relative 27 

Interrogative 28 

Possessive 29 

Demonstrative 30 

Indefinite 31 

Diagram of Classes 32 

Adjectives 33 

Descriptive 34 

Limiting 35 

Diagram of Classes 35 

Verbs 36 

Transitive 37 

Intransitive 38 

Adverbs 40 

Diagram of Classes 40 

Conjunctions 41 

Co-ordinate 42 

Subordinate 43 

INFLECTION. 

Introductory 44 

Declension 45 

Person 46 

Number 47-48 

Gender .. 49 

Case 50-60 

Comparison 61-67 



section. 

Conjugation 68 

Voice 69-71 

Modes 73-75 

Participles 76 

Infinitives 77 

Tense and Tense 78 

Forms 79-81 

Person and Number 82 

Caution 83 

The verb Drive 84-85 

The verb Be 86 

Defective verbs vrith Infin 87-89 

Periphrastic subjunctive 90 

Strong and weak Conjugations — 91-92 

Forms for Parsing 93 

List of strong Verbs 94 

List of seemingly irregular we'k v'bs 95 

SYNTAX. 

Sentence Analysis— 

Phrases and Clauses 96 

Phrases 97 

Prepositional 98 

Infinitive 99 

Participial 100 

Substantive 101 

Subordinate Clauses 102 

Parts of the Sentence— 

Subject 104 

Predicate— 

Verb alone 135 

Subjective Complement . 106 

Dir. Object .. 107 

Objective Complement 108 

Adjective Modifiers 110 

Adverb Modifiers Ill 

Connectives and disconnected w'ds 112 
Diagram of the parts of the sen- 
tence 113 

Sentences illustrating the different 

forms of sentences 114 

The General Theory 115 

Compound Forms 116 

Abbreviated Sentences 117 

Classes op Sentences 118 

Simple .* 119 

Complex 120 

Compound 121 

Semi-Compound — , 122 

Forms for analysis 124 



CONTENTS. 



GENERAL REMARKS ON SYNTAX. 

SECTION. 

Cases— 

Nom . Absolute 125 

Subjective Complement 126 

Objective Complement 128 

Indirect Object. . 129 

Adverbial Objective 130 

Cognate Object 131 

Objective after Adjectives 132 

.Pronouns— 

You and Thou 133 

It (and then) 134 

Compound Personals 135 

Relatives 136 

What, Whoever, &c 137 

Possessive Pronouns 138 

Adjectives — 

Attributive 139 

Appositive 139 

Predicate 139 

Prepositions- 

Object 140 

Modified 141 



SECTION. 

Verbs — 

Impersonal Verbs 142 

" Is, done, is gone," &o 143 

Infinitives and Participles 144 

Indicative 145 

Subjunctive 147 



SOME PECULIAR IDIOMS, 



Remarks 

"Many a," 

"A pound," "a year," &c 

" All the better " 

" What with this,"&c 

" Each other," «fec 

" Both— and," " either— or," &c. 

" The more the better," 

■' A hundred," " a little," &c 

" Every ten days," 

" That face of his," 

"One by one," 

" Had rather," 

"Methinks," 

Than 



Than whom. 



151 
152 
153 
154 
155 
156 
157 
158 
159 
160 
161 
162 
163 
164 
165 
166 
167 



^.^Tinr II. 



SENTENCE-MAKING . 

Capitals and Points I-V 

Exercise in Reproduction : 

" Song of the Dove," V 

Nouns— 

Formation of Plurals ... VI 

Gender Forms VII 

Possessive Case VIII-XII 

Exercise in Reproduction : 

" The Lodging," XII 

Pronouns XIII-XXI 

Exercise in Reproduction : 

*' The Eldorado," XXI 

Adjectives and Adverbs.. XXII-XXX VII 
Exercise in Reproduction : 

"Introduction," XXXVII 



Prepositions XXXVIII-XLI 

Verbs XLII-LI 

Conjunctions , LII-LVI 

Exercise in Reproduction : 

" The Cricket," LVI 

Miscellaneous LVII-LXni 

Exercise in Reproduction : 

" The Daffodils," LXIII 

Letter Writing LXIV 

Direct and Indirect Quota- 
tions LXV 

Paragraphing . . LXVI 

Capital Letters LXVH 

Punctuation LXVIII 

Exercise in Reproduction : 

" Boadicea," .-. LXVIII 




L 



PART I. 

FORMS AND SYNTAX, 





>-^^KOR]V[S.^H.- 



INTRODUCTORY. 



1. In speaking and writing we make use of groups of 
words for three purposes : 

1. To declare something ; as, boys laugh ; men live. 

2. To ask a question ; as, did he go ? lives he ? 

3. To express command ; as, leave me ; rise. 
"We call these groups of words sentences. 

2. A sentence is a group of words which declares, asks, or 
commands. 

3. A sentence that declares is called a declarative sen- 
tence ; one that asks a question, an interrogative sentence ; one 
that commands, an imperative sentence. 

Tell what kind each of these sentences is : 
1. The boy is learning. 2. When will he go ? 3. Study 
your lesson. 4. Why did you go ? 5. This apple is 
sour. 6. Come to the door. 7. Who is that man ? 8. 
He laughed outright. 9. Obey your parents. 10. What 
did they say ? 11. The thorn is sharp. 12. Do unto 
others as you would have them do unto you. 

AN"ALYSIS. 

4. Any sentence may be divided into two parts, the Sub- 
ject and the Predicate. 

5. The Subject of a sentence is that of which something 
is asserted ; as, toys play ; Tliomas studies ; apples are sweet. 
Boys, Thomas, and apples are the subjects of these sentences. 

6. The Predicate of a sentence is what is asserted of the 
subject. Play, studies^ and are siveet are the predicates in the 
sentences above. 



12 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

7. Words used to describe or modify the subject are 
Subject Modifiers ; as, beautiful birds sing ; the irighi, warm 
sun shines ; the house on the hill belongs to him ; the man 
sawing the wood is a tramp ; the man who steals is base. 

8. "Words used to modify the predicate are called Predi- 
cate Modifiers; as, she sings sweetly; the dog eats greedily 
and snappishly ; the man lives in the city ; birds sing when 
the spring co7nes. 

Point out Subject and Predicate, Subject Modifier, and 
Predicate Modifier. 

1. Bad men live wickedly. 2. The bright sun in the 
heavens shines pleasantly on the earth. 3. The big dog 
barks fiercely at the stranger. 4. Three red apples hang 
on the tree. 5. We rode rapidly to the river. 6. The 
cold wind from the north blows in our faces. 7. The 
child that is good brings happiness into the family. 
8. We shall go to church when the bells ring. 



PARTS OF SPEECH, 



9. In speaking and writing we make use of words for the 
following purposes : 

I. To name something; as, hoy, tree, horse ; 

II. To point out, or to stand in the place of a noun ; as, he, 
they, you; 

III. To describe^ or limit anything spoken of ; as, good, 
sweet, red; 

ly. To express action, being, or state of being ; as, 
Icill, is, sleep ; 

V. To modify words expressing action, or being, and 
also other modifying words; as, sweetly, here, then, very ; 

VI. To show the relation of one thing to another ; as, 
in, on, at; 

VII. To join words, phrases,and clauses ; as, and, or, hut, 
while, since; 

VIII. To express sudden or strong feeling ; as, 0! ah I fie I 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 13 

10. For these eight purposes, or offices, eight different 
kinds of words are used, called Parts of Speech. Named in the 
order of the offices mentioned above, the parts of speech are : 
Noun, Pronoun, Adjective, Verb, Adverb, Preposition, Con- 
junction, Interjection. 

11. A NouK is the name of anything ; as, book, man, 
George, cow, tree. 

12. A Prokoujst points out without describing, or stands 
for a noun ; and the noun for which it stands is called its 
antecedent ; as, the boy cries because he is cold ; the dog barks 
because it is. hungry ; the men said that they would come ; I 
walk ; ?/o?^ read. ' '' • " 

The most common pronouns are : I, me, thou, thee, he, 
him, she, her, it, we, us, you, they, them, who, which, what, 
this, that, some, any, few, many, such. 

13. An Adjective is a word used to describe or limit 
nouns and pronouns ; as, red, sweety great, good ; red apples ; 
sweet grapes ; great men ; he is good. 

14. A Verb is a word that expresses action, being, or 
state of being ; as, walks, talks, drives, eats, is, was : Joseph 
walks ; the girl talks; the man drives; George eats;Qodis; 
he was kind. 

15. An Adyerb is a word used to modify verbs, adjectives, 
and other adverbs ; as, sweetly, fast, fiercely ; very : the bird sings 
sweetly ; the horse runs fast j the dog barks fiercely ; he is very 
good. 

16. A PrepositIOK is a word that shows relation of 
one thiijg to another ; as, on, in, by, at, : a bird is on the tree ; 
the boy is in the house ; a tree stands hy the church ; he lives 
at the station. 

The following are the most frequently used prepositions : 
above, about, acispss, against, among, around, at, before, behind, 
below, beneath, between, beyond, by, during, for, from, in, 
into, of, on, over, to, through, up, upon, under, with, without ; 
and the following almost as frequently : aboard, along, amid, 
amidst, athwart, beside, besides, betwixt, but, concerning, 
down, ere, except, notwithstanding, past, since, throughout, 
till, towards, underneath, until, into, within. 



14 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

17 . A CoKJUif CTION is a word used to join words, phrases, 
and clauses ; as, the dog and the cat are friends ; George or 
Eobert went ; I went through the house and into the yard ; 
he laughed hut I cried ; they work while we play. 

Some of the more common conjunctions are : and, or, nor, 
but, for, if, as, although, since, until, while, than, when, 
where. 

18. An Ijs^terjection is a word used to express strong or 
sudden emotion ; as, ah ! alas ! lo ! begone ! 

19. The pupil must learn to tell the parts of speech as 
they are used in sentences ; for the same word may be used as 
different parts of speech in different sentences. In ''the fly 
was caught, '' fly is a noun ; in '' birds fly/' it is a verb. In 
*' he took the gold," gold is a noun ; in ''he has a gold watch,'' 
it is an adjective. In " the man is ill," ill is an adjective ; in 
"he is ill prepared," it is an adverb. Adjectives are frequently 
used as nouns ; as, the good are happy ; the hrave deserve the 
fair. 

Exercise.— (Tell the Parts of Speech.) 

1. The bad boy in the yard laughs heartily at the stranger. 2. 
Robert and George were hungry when they returned from the 
country. 3. O ! how happy you seem to be ! 4. An apple and a 
white rose lay on the table when I came home. 6. The old cat 
has three white kittens and she is not cross. 6. The rose is a 
sweeter flower than the lily. 7. The beautiful star shines brightly 
at night, and the great sun gives us light by day. 8. I shall be 
glad to sing the song if you will assist me. 9. The boy writes 
a letter on the type- writer but he is not very skilful. 10. I had 
two birds and one cat until the cat killed both birds ; then I 
killed the cat. 11. The lady gave the lamp to the boy while she 
looked for her gloves. 12. The ink in the stand is black. 13. 
Black is a very dark color. 14. The men stand near the door. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 15 

CLASSES OF PARTS OF SPEECH, 



NOUKS. 

20. Nouns are divided into two classes, Common and 
Proper nouns. 

21. A Common noun is a name that belongs to every one 
of a class of objects ; as, boy, tree, horse. 

22. A Proper noun is a name given to some particular 
person, place, or thing ; others may have the same name but 
it is given to only one at a time ; as, Eobert, St. Louis, Boston. 

Tell whether these are common or proper : Ohio, man, 
Thomas, bridge, Annie, river, dog, Mr. Holmes, church, cat, 
Eover, Boston, mines, day, Tennessee, life, brier, Jacob, sensa- 
tion, duty. 

23. Abstract nouns are the names of qualities, condi- 
tions, and relations ; as, brightness, color, truth, beauty, sweet- 
ness, liberty, distance, nearness. 

24. A Collective 7ioun is one that denotes a collection of 
objects (though the noun is singular) ; as, herd, flock, army, 
jury. 

PROKOUKS. 

25. Pronouns may be divided into six classes : Personal, 
Eelative, Interrogative, Possessive, Demonstrative, and Indefi- 
nite. 

26. Personal pronouns are those which show by their 
forms whether they point out the person speaking, the person 
spoken to, or the person spoken of ; as, I, you, he. 

27. A Relative pronoun is a word which does the work 
of a pronoun and of a conjunction at the same time. As a pro- 
noun it may be the subject or object of a verb or the object of 
a preposition ; as conjunction it connects the clause or group 
of words in which it stands with the antecedent of the pro- 
noun ; as, this is the man that helped us ', the boy whom we 
met has returned ; the God in whom we trust will save us. 

28. Interrogative pronouns are those used to ask ques- 
tions. They are who, which, what. 



16 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 



29. Possessive pronouns are formed from the old pos- 
sessive case of personal pronouns — no longer in use strictly as a 
case. They are my, mine, thy, thine, his, her, hers, its, 
our, ours, your, yours, their, theirs. 

30. Demonstrative pronouns are those which in some 
degree point out the object for which they stand. They are 
this, that, these, those. 

31. Indefinite pronouns are used without definite reference 
to an antecedent ; as, any, some, each, etc. 

32. The following diagram contains all the pronouns of 
each class : 

f f Simple :— I, thou, he, she, it, we, you, they, 

PAr«nn«l J Hie, thee, him, her, them, US. 
reisondi y Compound :— myself, thyself, himself, herself, 

[ itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves. 
Relative ■! ^^^Pl® :~who, which, that, what. 

\ Compound : — whoever, whichever, whatever, 
I Interrogative : — Who, which, what, ( whether.) 
Pronouns. ^ possessive \ ^^' *^^' "^^^®' thine, his, her, hers, its, our, 
\ ours, your, yours, their, theirs. 
Demonstrative : — This, that, these, those. 

( Some, one, any, none, many, each, either, 
! neither, other, certain, several, both, all. 
Indefinite 1 few ; and compounds of some, any, every, 
t I and no with one, thing, and body. 

Exercise. — Tell to which class each of these pronouns belongs : I, 
this, each, thou, some, it, those, he, few, they, one, she, that, him, 
such, them, no one, either, us, anybody, many, thee, all, ye, other, 
myself, whichever, anything, itself, thou, himself, nothing, we. 



ADJECTIVES. 

33. Adjectives may be divided into two general classes, 
Descriptive and Limiting. 

34. A Descriptive adjective js one that in some way 
describes the noun it modifies ; as, sweet, red, delicate. 

35. A Limiting adjective limits, but does not describe 
the noun it modifies ; as, much, ten, many, the. Limiting adjec- 
tives may be divided into several classes as shown in the dia- 
gram below. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 



17 



Adjectives 



[Descriptive : — sweet, red, gay, etc. 

fany, many, some, each, no, 
■D,.^v,^^.,-v,oi J neither, either, every, this, 
Pronommal i ^^^^^ ^'j^^^^^ which,^ what, 

[^ few, all, etc. 

f Cardinals : — one, two, three, 
I etc. 

] Ordinals : — first, second, third, 
etc. 



Limiting 



Numeral 

Articles 
Relational 



r single, double, 



I 



i MultipUcatives^ thl^ef^old, 

L I etc, 

^ Definite : — the. 
( Indefinite : — a, an. 

ii far, near, inner, upper, lower, 
"( etc. 



Exercise. — Tell to which class each of these adjectives belongs : — 
good, this, some, three, fourth, tender, that, much, seven, the, 
poor, an, these, kind, every, plain, first, ten, great, nine, far, light, 
twofold, tame, either, bright, no, savage, few. 

Exercise 2. — When the words given under Pronominal Adjectives are 
used to modify a noun or pronoun they are adjectives. When used 
substantively they are pronouns 
Tell whether they are pronouns or adjectives in the following 

sentences. 
1. Many believe him. 2. I saw many apples. 3. Some men were 
in the yard. 4. Some go to the other extreme. 5. Either place 
will answer. 6. I'll not have either. 7. That is a book. 
8. Give me that knife. 9. WTiichhoj did you call? 10. This 
is the dog u'hich we saw. 11. What man could do f/iis F 12. I 
know what you want. 13. Few part where many meet. 

VERBS. 

36. There are two kinds of verbs^ Transitive and Intran- 
sitive verbs. 

37. A Transitive verb is one that has, or may have, a 
"direct object after it ; as, kills, strikes, eat, drives, in the fol- 
lowing : James strikes the dog ; they eat the apples ; he drives 
the horses ; the man kills the snake. 

38. An Intransitive verb is one that does not admit a 
direct object ; as, he sleeps ; she laughs ; they run. 

39. The pupil must learn to tell by its use in a sentence 
whether a verb is transitive or intransitive ; for a verb may be 



18 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

transitive in one sentence and intransitive in another ; as, they 
hang the man ; the pictures hang on the wall. 

Tell whether these verbs are trans, or intr. : 
1. He leaves the town. 2. Greorge plays well. 3. He 

drives the team. 4. They rise early. 5. Whom did he 

marry ? 6. I shall go. 7. He broke the stick. 8. The 

stick broke. 9. She poured the tea into the cup. 10. 

The water poured over the falls. 11. He closed the window. 

12. The door closed behind him. 13. They will come. 

14. He appears kind. 

ADVERBS. 

40. . Adverbs may be divided into seven classes as shown in 
the diagram, those of each class answering the question indicated 
in parenthesis : 

Time (When?): — now, then, ever, sometime. 

Place ( Where ? ) : — here, there, everywhere, 
above. 

Manner ( How ? ) : — sweetly, pleasantly, well. 

Degree ( To what extent ? ) : —very, much, quite. 
Adyerbs oe { Motion ( Whither ? ) : — up, down, backward, for- 
ward. 

Affirmation, etc. ( Is it true ?) : — yes, no, not, cer- 
tainly, indeed. 

Cause ( Why ?) : — hence, whence, wherefore, 
why. 

conju:n"ctions. 

41. Conjunctions may be divided into two classes. 
Co-ordinate and Subordinate. 

42. Co-ordinate conjunctions connect words, phrases, and 
clauses of the same rank. They are : and, but, or, nor, (either, 
neither,) also, 

43. Subordinate conjunctions introduce subordinate 
clauses. The most common are : when, where, while, as, till, 
until, since, if, unless, lest, that, though, than. 

sentences. 

' (Tell the subject and predicate — the subject modifiers and 
the predicate modifiers in each sentence. Tell the part of speech, 
and the class to which each word belongs.) 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 19 

1. The tree fell in the storm. 2. The beautiful bird, 
which you saw, sings very sweetly. 3. That was a man of 
great curiosity ; and he has been punished for his folly. 4. 
Who knows the heart of man ? 5. Great minds fre- 
quently act slowly. 6, The snow fell fast and covered all 
the earth. 7. Once more, for a moment, the hero had 
nothing to say. 8. The sitting-room was larger than the 
kitchen and for that reason looked lower, too. 9. The 
furniture seemed as old as the house, black with years and 
much rubbing. 10. The chairs had high straight backs ; 
the fenders and fire-dogs were of highly polished brass. 11. 
Many centuries ago a slave, who had made his escape from 
a cruel master, fled to a forest where night surprised him, 
so that he was forced to take refuge in a cave, 12. He 
had scarcely closed his eyes in the attempt to sleep when 
he heard the roar of a lion beside him. 



INFLECTION, 



44. In using words we frequently change their forms to 
indicate the difi'erent purposes for which we use them : Thus 
the noun boy is written in four diiferent ways ; boy, boy's, 
boys, and boys', ; the pronoun I with these changes ; I, me, we, 
us ; and the verb see has the forms see, seest, sees, saw, have 
seen, has seen, shall see, will see, and several others. 

The change of form in a part of speech to indicate its dif- 
ferent uses is called Inflection. The change in nouns and 
pronouns is called Declension ; in adjectives. Comparison ; in 
verbs. Conjugation. 

Note. — Words in English now have different forms to express 
only a very small part of their various uses. We once had a full 
set of forms, but they have been dropped off until we have only a 
few left. Yet we cannot afford to neglect these few simply because 
they are few ; for most of the common grosser blunders in gram- 
mar are caused by a disregard of these forms. The pupil must 
remember, however, that it is not by their forms but by their posi- 
tion and meaning, and by the general structure and meaning of 
the sentence in which they occur that he is to know the different 
uses of words. 



20 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

DECLENSION, 



45. Nouns and pronouns have only a partial set of forms 
to indicate changes in Person, Number, Gender, and Case. 

PERSON. 

46. Nouns and pronouns are said to be of three Persons, 
First, Second, and Third, — of the first person when they denote 
the person speaking ; as, /, Johrii saw this ; we, the people, will 
do it ; — of the second person when they denote the person 
spoken to ; as, George, come to me ; you, fathers, have heard 
me ; — of the third person when they denote the person spoken 
of ; as, lie saw Jolin ; they called him, 

l^UMBER. 

47. Nouns and pronouns are of two Numbers; of the 
Singular when they denote but one of the thing named ; as, 
man, horse, child ; of the Plural when they denote more than 
one ; as, men, horses, children. 

48. The Plural of nouns is regularly formed by adding 
to the sing., s or es, but there are many exceptions. See Part 
II., sec. VI, (1, 2, 3, etc.) 

GEKDER. 

49. Nouns and pronouns denoting males are said to be of 
the Masculine gender ; as, man, boy, ox, he ; those denoting 
females, of the Feminine gender ; as, woman, girl, cow, she ; 
those denoting neither males nor females of the Neuter gender ; 
ae, t?ree, stone, it. See Part II., sec. VII, 

Exercise. — Tell person, number, gender of the nouns and pro- 
nouns : — 1. Boys like to play. 2. Temperance is a 
virtue. 3. King ^grippa, believest thou the prophets ? 
4. The little army fought bravely oii that day. 5. My 
son, have you seen him ? 6. The widow lost her son. 7. 
The horse kicked the boy. 8. My brother, what have 
you done ? 9. The tree has fallen across the road. 10. 
shame on thee, wolf, to eat the little lambs ! 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 21 

CASE, 

50. Nouns and pronouns are of four cases, Nominative, 
Possessive, Objective, and Vocative. 

51. NoMiN"ATiVE Case. — The subject of a finite verb is 
in the nominative case ; as, dogs bark, hoys play, he runs. 

52. — Possessive Case. — The possessive case denotes 
ownership and other relations ; as, Jameses hat ; the dog's 
mouth ; George's home. 

The Possessive case is formed by adding to the Nom. an 
apostrophe (') and s; but if the plural ends in s add the 
apostrophe only. 

53. Objective Case. — The object of a verb or of a 
preposition is in the obj. case ; as, he saw the 7)ian ; the child 
eats apples ; the book is on the shelf; they send their son 
to school. 

54. Vocative Case. — A noun used in addressing an;y 
person or thing by name is in the vocative case ; as, Robert, 
come to me ; ye stars ! our Father^ who art in heaven ; 0, 
sister, come quickly. 

55. NoMi]!q"ATiVE After the Verb. — All forms of the 
verbs be ( am, is, are, was, were, shall be, has been ), become, 
seem, and appear regularly take the nom. case after them ; 
and many other verbs sometimes take the nom. after them. 
Sheep are animals ; the boy became a man ; he seemed a gentle- 
man ; he has grown quite a man ; he returned an invalid. 

bQ. Nominative Absolute is a noun or pronoun mod- 
ified by a participle or adjective and seemingly without any 
grammatical connexion with the rest of the sentence, but really 
used as an adverb modifier ; as, James leaving, we retired ; the 
grass being wet with dew, we did not walk out ; he lay down, 
his heart heavy with sorrow ; honor lost, all is lost. 

57. Indirect Object. — Some verbs in addition to a 
direct object take an indirect object ; as, she gave Thomas the 
book ; he made me a ball ; we sent them the paper ; he leaves 
the dog a chance, 

58. Adverbial Objective — Is used to express measure 
of time and space and the like ; as, he walked a mile ; we 
slept two hours ; the ditch was three feet deep and fifty yards 
long ; he came last lueeh ; it is a long distance off. 



22 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 



59. Apposition. — When one noun is used to explain 
another by giving another name to the same person or thing, 
the explanatory noun is said to be in the same case with the 
other by apposition ; as, Henry, the hlachsmith, lives here ; we 
saw Tennyson, Vhq poet ; we listened to the mocking bird, a 
delightful singer. 

60. The following table shows the few changes which 
take place in the noun and pronoun : 



Singular 



Plural 



Singular 



Plural 



Case. 



Nom. and Voc. 


boy 


man 


girl 


I 


thou 


Poss. 


boy's 


man's 


girl's 


(my) 


(thy) 


Obj. 


boy 


man 


girl 


me 


thee 


Nom. and Voc. 


boys 


men 


girls 


we 


you, ye 


Poss. 


boys' 


mens' 


girls' 


(our) 


(your) 


Obj. 


boys 


men 


girls 


us 


you 


Nom. and Voc. 


he 


she 


it 


who 




Poss 


(his) 


(her) 


(its) 


whose 




Obj. 


him 


her 


it 


whom 




Nom. and Voc. 


they 


they 


they 


who 




Poss. 


(their) 


(their) 


(their) 


whose 




Obj. 


them 


them 


them 


whom 




. 


r 


( Subjective. 










Nominative. 


\ After 


verbs. 












( Absolute. 








■{ Possessive. 


( Direct 










Objective. 


< Indirect. 
( Adverbial. 








[ Vocative. 














sentences. 









(Tell Pers., No., Gen., and Case of nouns and pronouns.) 
1. The boy killed a bird. 2. The bird's wing was broken. 3. 
He loves her, 4. They are in the house. 5. We told them to 
wait. 6. Robert, what are you doing? 7. I am reading a book. 8. 
It is a novel. 9. You live in the city. 10. Henry, your father 
has come. 11. They met Carlyle, the author. 12. The bank 
having failed, we lost money. 13. Tennyson, the poet, is growing 
old. 14. The robbers having boarded the train, the passengers 
were frightened. 15. He reigned ten years. 16. He walks every 
morning. 17. There is no work which is necessarily disgraceful. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

COMPARISON. 



23 



61. Many adjectives and some adverbs have forms to 
express different degrees of quality. This change is called 
comparison, and there are three degrees, Positive, Comparative, 
and Superlative. 

62. The Positive degree expresses the simple quality of 
the adjective ; as, sweet, small, good. * 

63. The Comparative degree is used to indicate that of 
certain objects compared one has more or less of the quality 
named than the others ; as, sweeter, smaller^ better. 

64. The Superlative degree is used to indicate that of 
several objects compared one has the most or least of the quality 
named ; as, sweetest, smallest, best. 

^b. Adjectives of one syllable and some of two syllables 
are compared by adding to the positive er for the comp. and 
est for the sup. ; as, bright, brighter, brightest, pretty, prettier, 
prettiest. 

Other adjectives express degrees of quality by the aid of 
the adverbs more and most ; as, beautiful, more beautiful, most 
beautiful ; gracious, more gracious, most gracious. 

QQ, Sometimes a decreasing comparison is formed by 
means of the adverbs less and least ; as, wise, less wise, least 
wise. 

67. The following adjectives and adverbs are irregular in 
comparison : 

forth, 
up, 



good, 
bad, 


better, 
worse. 


best; 
worst ; 


ill, 


worse, 


worst ; 


little, 


less. 


least ; 


many, 
in. 


more, 
inner, 


most; 
j innermost 
( inmost ; 



out, 



further, 
upper, 

outer, 
utter, 



former. 



better, 
(farther, 



furthest ; 

uppermost : 
( uttermost 
\ outermost 
( utmost ; 
j foremost 
\ first ; 

best ; 

farthest.) 



fore, 

well, 
far. 

Exercise. — Tell the degree of comparison of each adjective 
and adverb : 

1. He is good. 2. John is wiser. 3. The beautiful 
birds sing most sweetly. 4. He reads worst of all. 5. 

She loved more. 6. This is better bread than that. 7. 

Much snow fell. 8. The boy was ill yesterday and worse 
today. 



24 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

CONJUGATION. 



68. Verbs, partly by changes in the form of the word and 
partly by the assistance of other verbs, show difference in Voice, 
Mode, Tense, Person, and Number. 

VOICE. 

69. Verbs are in the Active voice when they represent 
the subject as doing what is expressed by the verb ; as, Joseph 
reads the book ; George drives the horses ; cats catcli mice ; the 
girl loves her mother. 

70. Verbs are in the Passive Voice when the subject is 
represented as having done to it what is expressed by the verb ; 
as the book is read by Joseph ; the horses are driven ; mice are 
caught ; the mother is loved. 

71. A verb that is always intransitive can not have a Pas- 
sive voice. 

Exercise. — (Tell whether these verbs are Act. or Pass.) 

1. He calls the boy. 2. They row the boat. 3. The 
apples were eaten. 4. The boy loves the girl. 5. The 
girl is loved by the boy. 6. Birds are shot on the wing. 
7. The sportsman shoots birds on the wing. 8. The 
barber shaves the man. 9. The man is shaved by the 
barber. 10. The machine cuts the wheat. 11. The dog 
is fed by the boy. 

MODE. 

72. There are three Modes of the verb; the Indicative, the 
Subjunctive, and the Imperative. Besides these three modes 
which make up the finite verb there are two other forms, called 
Participles and Infinitives, which may be said to be infinite or 
unlimited. 

73. The INDICATIVE Mode is used to declare simply, and 
to ask questions ; as, he writes ; they speak ; does he sing f he 
can speak. 

74. The Sdbjukctive Mode is used to make a statement 
as supposed, conditional, desired, or indirect ; as, were I king 
he should die ; if he he dead, leave him. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 25 

75. The Imperative Mode expresses command, 
entreaty, or request ; as, retire from my presence ; go with me ; 
read this ; save, save, me ! 

76. Participles are verbal adjectives modifying nouns 
like other adjectives and at the same time retaining the nature 
of the verb ; as, this man, loved by all, lived in peace ; the tree, 
bending low, kissed the waters ; the boy, havi7ig lost his money, 
could not travel. 

77. In^finitives are verbal nouns used as the subjects or 
objects of verbs or as modifiers of verbs, adjectives, and nouns ; 
as, to steal is base ; he loves to play ; he came to stay ; a soul to 
save ; fruit good to eat. The '^ to" is not always used ; as, he 
dare not leave ; let him go ; he can read. 

78. The Ikfikitive ik -ing does not differ in appearance 
from certain forms of the participle, but can be distinguished 
from them by the fact that it is always a noun, while the parti- 
ciple is adjective in use. Infinitives in -ing : — playing ball is 
exercise ; his coming was a surprise ; John's having lost his 
money prevented his travelling. 

tekse ai^d tense-forms. 

79. There are six Tenses of the verb ; Present, Past, 
Future, Perfect, Pluperfect, Future Perfect. 

80. Present Tense denotes present time ; as, I write ; he 
plays. 

Past Tense denotes past time unlimited ; as, I wrote ; 
he played. 

Future Tense denotes future time unlimited ; as, I shall 
write ; he will play. 

Perfect Tense denotes past time within a period that 
' includes the present ; as, I have written ; he has played. 

Pluperfect Tense denotes past time completed before some 
other past time referred to ; as, I had written ; he had played. 

Future Perfect Tense denotes future time completed 
before some other future time referred to ; as, I shall have 
written ; he will have played. 

81. There are three forms of expressing action — Simple, 
I read ; Progressive, I am reading ; Emphatic, I do read. The 
simple form is used to express action somewhat indefinitely. 



26 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 



The progressive form represents the action as actually taking 
place at the time indicated. The emphatic form is used for 
emphasis and in asking questions. 

PERSON AKD KUMBER. 

82. Verbs are said to be of the same Person and Number 
as their subjects ; and there are some differences in form to 
denote differences in Person and Number. 

CAUTIOI^. 

83. The mind of the student should be impressed with 
the fact that nearly all of the forms given in the paradigm 
below are made up by the help of other verbs. Only a very few 
forms (those in Italics) are formed by the verb itself without 
such help. But it would be worse than idle to deny, on this 
account, that any of these forms belong to the regular inflection 
of the verb. 



THE VERB DRIVE.— ACTIVE VOICE, 



84 



PARTICIPLES. 



Pres. driving. 
Past, driien. 

J having driven. 

( haviDg been driving. 



Perf. 



Pres. 
Perf. 



INFINITIVES. 

j ( to ) drive . 

\ (to ) be driving. 

J ( to ) have driven . 

1 ( to ) have been driving. 



INDICATIVE MODE. 

PRESENT TENSE. 



Simple. 


( I drive. 
■< thou drives t. 
{ he drives. 


we drive. 
you drive. 
they drive. 


Progressive. 


( I am driving. 
< thou art driving. 
( he is driving. 


we are driving, 
you are dris'ing. 
they are driving. 


Eisphatic. 


( I do drive. 

•< thou dost drive. 

{ he does drive. 

PAST TENSE. 


we do drive, 
you do drive, 
they do drive. 


Simple. 


i I drove. 

■< thou drovest. 

( he drove. 


we drove 
you drove. 
they drove. 


Progressive. 


\ I was driving. 

-I thou wast driving. 

( he was driving. 


we were driving, 
you were driving, 
they were driving. 


Emphatic. 


( I did drive. 

-{ thou didst drive . 

( he did drive. 


we did drive, 
you did drive, 
they did drive. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 



27 



FUTURE TENSE. 



Simple. 



I shall drive, 
thou wilt drive . 
he will drive. 



( I shall be driving. 
Progressive -( thou wilt be driving. 
( he will be driving. 

PERFECT TENSE. 
{ I have driven. 
Simple. ■< thou hast driven, 
f he has driven. 

( I have been driving. 
Progressive. -< thou hast been driving. 
( he has been driving. 



PLUPERFECT TENSE. 



( I had driven. 
Simple. •< thou hadst driven, 
(he had driven. 

( I had been driving. 
Progressive. ^ thou hadst been driving. 
( he had been driving. 



we shall drive, 
you will drive . 
they will drive. 

we shall be driving, 
you will be driving, 
they will be driving. 



we have driven . 
you have driven, 
they have driven. 

we have been driving, 
you have been driving, 
they have been driving. 



we had driven, 
you had driven, 
they had driven. 

we had been driving, 
you had been driving 
they had been driving. 



FUTURE PERFECT TENSE. 



Simple 



lis 

-^th( 
(he 



I shall have driven, 
ou wilt have driven . 
wUl have driven. 



\ I shall have been driving . 
Progressive, i thou wilt have been driving. 
( he will have been driving. 



we shall have driven, 
you will have driven . 
they will have driven. 

we shall have been driving, 
you will have been driving, 
they will have been driving. 



SUBJUNCTIVE MODE. 



Simple 



( I d'ri 
< thou 
(he d7 



PRESENT TENSE. 



ve. 

drive . 
drive . 



( I be driving. 
Progressive. ■< thou be driving. 
( he be driving. 



PAST TENSE. 



i I drove. 
Simple. ■< thou drove. 
I he drove. 



Progressive 



Simple . 



I were driving, 
thou were driving, 
he were driving. 



PLUPERFECT TENSE. 



I had driven, 
thou had driven . 
he had driven. 



{I had been driving, 
thou had been driving, 
he had been driving. 



we d7'ive. 
you drive . 
they drive. 

we be driving . 
you be driving, 
they be driving . 



we drove. 
you drove. 
they drove. 

we were driving, 
you were driving, 
they were driving. 



we had driven . 
you had driven . 
they had driven. 

we had been driving, 
you had been driving, 
they had been driving. 



IMPERATIVE MODE. 

S. Drive. P. Be driving. E. Do drive. 
Note.— Some of these forms for the Subjunctive may , perhaps, be more theoret. 
ical than real in recent English. They are much used in Shakespeare, in the Bible, 
and in other older forms of English. Instead of these forms we now frequently use 
either the Indicative or certain verb phrases, which we may call the Periphrastic 
Subjunctive . ( See 90 . ) 



38 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

THE VERB DRIVE.— PASSIVE VOICE. 



85 



PARTICIPLES. 



Pres. being driven. 

Past driven. 

Perf. having been driven. 



INFINITIVES. 

Pres. (to) be driven. 

Perf. (to) have been driven. 



INDICATIVE MODE. 



PRESENT TENSE. 



(I am driven. 
Simple. -{ thou art driven, 
l^he is driven. 

(I am being driven. 
Pto,:,nessive.^ thou art bein^ driven, 
(.he is being driven. 



Simple. 



PAST TENSE. 
I was driven . 
thou wast driven, 
he was driven. 



( I was being driven. 
Progressive. < thou wast being driven. 
( he was being driven. 



FUTURE TENSE. 



Simple . 



Simpk 



Simple . 



I shall be driven . 
thou wilt be driven, 
he will be driven. 



PERFECT TENSE. 



I have been driven, 
thou hast been driven, 
he has been driven. 



PLUPERFECT TENSE. 



I had been driven, 
thou hast been driven, 
he had been driven. 



we are driven . 
you are driven, 
they are driven . 

we are being driven . 
you are being driven . 
they are being driven. 



we were driven, 
you were driven, 
they were driven . 

we were being driven . 
you were being driven, 
they were being driven . 



we shall be driven, 
you will be driven, 
they will be driven. 



we have been driven . 
you have been driven, 
they have been driven . 



we had been driven, 
you had been driven, 
they had been driven. 



FUTURE PERFECT TENSE. 



c I shall have been driven. 
Simple. < thou wilt have been driven. 
C he will have been driven. 



we shall have been driven, 
you will have been driven, 
they will have been driven. 



SUBJUNCTIVE MODE. 



Simple. 



PRESENT TENSE. 



I be driven, 
thou be driven, 
he be driven. 



PAST TENSE. 



( I were driven . 
Simple. < thou were driven, 
(he were driven. 



we be driven . 
you be driven . 
they be driven. 



we were driven, 
you were driven . 
they were driven . 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 



Simple . 



PLUPERFECT TENSE. 

Ihad been driven. 

thou had (st) been driven. 

he had been driven. 



we had been driven, 
you had been driven . 
they had been driven. 



IMPERATIVE MODE. 

S. Be driven. E. Do be driven. 



SYJYOPSIS OF THE VERB DRIVE, 



Participles. . 



Infinitives . . 



ACTIVE. 



f Pres.— driving: 

J Past— driven 

1 pprf — i h3;Ving driven 

(^ ^^"- \ having been driving. 



{ Pres . — - 



Perf.— ■ 



Pres. 



(to) drive ,.. 

(to) be driving 

(to) have driven 

(to) have been driving. 



S.— he drives 

P. — he is driving. . 
E. — he does drive 



Ind. Mode .. -< 



Past. 



Fut. 



S. — he drove 

P. — he was driving. 
E.— he did drive.. .. 



Perf . . . j 
Pluperf I 

Flit. Perf. 



f Pres . 
Sub. Mode.. ^ Past. 



—he will drive 

.—he will be driving — 

—he has driven 

.—he has been driving . . 

.—he had driven 

.—he had been driving. 

S.— he will have driven 

P.— he will have been 

driving 



J S.— he drive 

) P.— he. be driving. 



S.— he drove 

P.— he were driving. 



[^ Pluperf A p 



S .— he had driven 

he had been driving 



Imp. Mode. 



Imp. J^--' 
dode. ]g_, 



-drive 

-be driving 
-do drive . . . 



PASSIVE. 

being driven, 
driven. 

having been driven. 



(to) be driven. 

(to) have been driven. 

he is driven. 

he is being driven. 



he was driven. 

he was being driven. 



he will be driven . 

he has been driven. 

he had been driven. 

be will have been driven. 



he be driven. 

he weredtreingriirrve}! , 

he were driven. 

he were being driven. 

he had been d.^iven. 

be driven . 
do be driven. 



THE VERB BE,-^IRREGULAR. NEUTER. 



86 



PARTICIPLES. 

Pres.- beiAg. 
Past.— been. 
Perfect.— having been. 



INFINITIVES. 

?res.— (to) be. 
Perfect.— (to) have been. 



80 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 



II^DICATIVE MODE. 



I am. 
thou art. 
he is. 



I was. 
thou wast . 
he was. 



I shall be. 
thou wilt be. 
he will be. 



I have been, 
thou hast been, 
he has been. 



I had been, 
thou hadstbeen. 
he had been. 



PEESENT TENSE. 



PAST TENSE. 



FUTURE TENSE. 



PERFECT TENSE. 



PLUPERFECT TENSE. 



we are. 
you are. 
they are 



we were, 
you were, 
they were . 



we shall be. 
you will be. 
they will be. 

we have been, 
you have been, 
they have been. 



we had been, 
you had been, 
they had been. 



FUTURE PERFECT TENSE. 



I shall have been, 
thou wilt have been . 
he will have been. 



we shall have been, 
you will have been . 
they will have been. 



SUBJUNCTIVE MODE. 

PRESENT TENSE. 



I be. 




we be. 


thou be. 




you be. 


he be. 


PAST TENSE. 


they be. 


I were . 




we were . 


thou were. 




you were. 


he were. 


PLUPERFECT TENSE. 


they were. 


I had been. 




we had been. 


thou hadstbeen. 




you had been. 


he had been. 




they had been 



IMPERATIVE MODE. 

S —be. E.— dobe. 



A YEAR IN. ENGLISH. 31 

DEFECTIVE TEEBS FOLLOWED BY THE IXFIXITIYE WITH- 
OUT '' TO/^ 

87. The verbs, may, must, can, shall, and will are called 
defective verbs because all the parts are wanting except the 
Indicative and Subjunctive, Present and Past ; and there is no 
difference between the form of the Ind. and that of the Subj. 

fmay f might 

I can I could 

Present { must Past { (must) 

I shall I should 

l^will 1^ would. 

88. The verbs may, can, must, and shall and will when 
not used as the sign of the Future, are always followed by the 
infinitive (without ^^to") of some other verb. We have seen 
that a transitive verb may have six infinitive forms. Now the 
Present or Past tense of any of these verbs may be followed by 
any of these infinitives : 

He can drive. He could drive. 

He can be driving. He could be driving. 

He can have driven. He could have driven. 

He can have been driving. He could have been driving. 

He can be driven. He could be driven. 

He can have been driven. He could have been driven. 

89. In parsing let 7nay, can, must, etc., be considered 
separately as Ind., or Subj., and then the infinitive following it 
parsed as any other infinitive depending upon the main verb. 

THE PERIPHRASTIC SUBJUKCTIYE. 

90. May, might, would, and should, sometimes unite 
with the infinitive to form what may be called a Periphrastic 
Subjunctive. Let the student remember distinctly that 
these verbs are thus used only at times. At other times 
they have a meaning in themselves and are not used as auxil- 
iaries. The following examples, while the expressions in the 
first column are not exactly equivalent to those in the second, 
yet show how we now express by periphrastic forms what was 
once expressed by the subjunctive alone, and is still sometimes 
so expressed : 



32 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

REGULAR SUBJ. PERIPHRASTIC SUBJ. 

( he may be. 

He be - he should be. 

( let him be. 

( he might be. 

He were. -^ he should be. 

( he would be. 

( he might have been. 

He had been - he should have been. 

( he would have been. 

EXAMPLES. 

(a) The following are examples of the Periphrastic Subjunc- 
tive. 

1. May you be successful. 3. That would 5e cruel. 3. I study 
that I may learn. 4. He requested that he should he allowed to 
read it. 5. He left that he might not see us. 6. Take it that 
joumaynot &e sick. 7. Take it lest you s/ioztZd 6e sick. 8. He 
commanded that the thief should be hanged. 

( b ) The following are examples of the verbs may, might, 
would, etc., used with a significance of their own. 

1. You may read it. 2. He «^oitZd have it so. 3. I do not know, 
he may come to-day. 4. John should learn his lesson. 5. These 
two might be left. 6. He can sing. 7. Henry must remain. 
8. We coidd do it formerly. 



STRONG AND WEAK CONJUGATIONS. 



91. Some verbs change their main vowel to form their 
Past tense ; and form their Past Participle (1) by adding to the 
Pres. n or en, (2) by the same change that marks the Past 
tense, (3) by still further change of tiie same vowel ; as, 

drive, drove, driven ; 

write, wrote, written ; 

find, found, found ; 

sing, sang, sung. 

These verbs are said to be Strong verbs, or of the Strong 
Conjugation. 

92. Verbs which form their Past Tense and Past Parti- 
ciple by adding d or ed or t to the present are said to be Weak 
verbs, or of the Weak Conjugation ; as, live, lived, lived ; dream, 
dreaiyit, dreamt;, ^ve, .loved, loved; sweep, swept, swept. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 33 

Verbs which change the vowel and also add the d or t belong 
to this class ; buy, bought, bought ; seek, sought, sought. 

Exercises. — ( Tell in the following order, the Conjugation ( Strong or 
Weak), Class (Trans, orlntrans.), Voice (Act. or Pass.), Mode 
(Ind. M., Subj. M., Imp. M. ), Tense ( Pres. Past, Put., 
etc.), Form (Simple, P., E.), Person (1, 2, 3), and Number 
(Sing., Plu.) of the verbs in these sentences :) 1. He thinks. 
2. They are playing. 3. She did go. 4. I spoke. 5. You were 
walking. 6. We do succeed. 7. He will come. 8. She will be 
singing. 9. They will have consented. 10. I have lost it. 11. You 
had gone. 12. We had been listening. 13. He were seeing. 14. 
If she be counting. 15. They had been trying. 16. I am hated, 
17. You were being killed. 18. We shall be delayed. 19. He was 
hidden. 20. She had been invited. 21. They will have been 
lost. 22. I can read. 23. You could come. 24. He may have 
been assisted. 25. We ought to go. 26. He writes. 27. The 
letter is written. 28. I was coming. 29. We shall pay it. 30. 
They were counted. 31. The debt will be paid. 32. He had drunk 
wine. 33. The wine had been drunk. 



FORMS FOR PARSING. 



93. In parsing it will be well to follow the forms, or formulas 
given below. 

Nouns: — Class, Pers., No., (Gender), Case and why. 

Pronouns : — Class, Pers,, No., Gen., Case and why. 

Adjectives : — Class, Degree, Modify what. 

Verbs : — Conj., Class, Voice, Mode, Tense, Form, Pers .and No. and 
why. 

Adverbs : — Class, Modify what. 

Prepositions : — Show relation between what. 

Conjunctions : — Class, Connect what. 

SENTENCES, 

1. The tree is very large. 2. The beautiful lady's sweet face wore 
a pleasant smile. 3. She saw a glory in each cloud. 4. Few days pass 
without some clouds. 5. She made acquaintance with the birds that 
flitted by. 6. How long didst thou think that his silence was slumber ? 
7. Each in his place must do his part. 8. Few are qualified to shine in 
company ; but it is in most men's power to be agreeable. 9. He is fool- 
ish because he leaves school so early in life. 10. A ruler who appoints 



34 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

any man to office when there is another in his dominion better qualified 
for it sins against God and against the state. 

11. He pray eth best who loveth best 
All things both great and small, 
For the dear God who loveth us, 
He made and loveth all. 

12. It stands in a sunny meadow, 
The house so mossy and brown, 

With its cumbrous old stone chimneys, 

And the gray roof sloping down . 

The trees fold their green arms around it — 

The trees a century old — 

And the winds go chanting through them, 

And the sunbeams drop their gold. 

The cowslips spring in the marshes, 

The roses bloom on the hill, 

And beside the brook in the pasture. 

The herds go feeding at will. 

— Moulton. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

LIST OF STBOJSfG VERBS. 



85 



94. 








abide 


abode 


abode 


hold 


arise 


arose 


arisen 




awake 


awoke 


awoke 


know 




awaked 


awaked 


lie 


be 


was 


been 


ride 


bear 


bore 


born 


ring 


bear 


bore 


borne 


rise 


beat 


beat 


beaten 




begin 


began 


begun 


rive 


behold 


beheld 


beheld 
(beholden) 


run 

see 


bid 


bade 
bid 


bidden 
bid 


seethe 


bind 
bite 


bound 
bit 


bound 

(bounden) 

bitten 

bit 

blown 


shake 
shine 


blow 


blew 


shrink 


break 


broke 


broken 


sing 


chide 


chid, 
( chode ) 


chid 
chidden 


sink 


choose 


chose 


chosen 


sit 


cleave 


clove 


cloven 


slay 


cleft 


cleft 


slide 


cling 
climb 


clung 

(clomb) 

climbed 


clung 
climbed 


sling 
slink 


come 


came 


come 


smite 


crow 


crew 


crown 


speak 




crowed 


crowed 


spin 


do 


did 


done 




draw 


drew 


drawn 


spring 


drink 


drank 


drunk 
(drunken ) 


stand 
steal 


drive 


drove 


driven 


sting 


eat 


ate 


eaten 


stink 


fall, 


fell 


faUen 


stride 


fight 


fought 


fought 


strike 


find 


found 


found 


fling 


flung 


flung 


strive 


fly 


flew 


flown 


swear 


forbear 


forbore 


forborne 




forget 


forgot 


forgotten 


swim 


forsake 


forsook 


forgot 
forsaken 


swing 
take 


freeze 


froze 


frozen 


tear 


get, 


got 


gotten 
got 


thrive 


give 


gave 


given 


throw 


go 
grave 


went 
graved 


gone 
graven 


tread 


grind 


ground 


ground 


wake 


grow 


grew 


grown 


VlOTlO- 


hung 


hung 


weave 


nang 


hanged 


hanged 


win 


heave 


hove 
heaved 


heaved 


wind 
wring 


hew 


hewed 


hewn 
hewed 


write 



held 


held 
(holden) 


knew 


known 


lay 


lain 


rode 


ridden 


rang 


rung 


rose 


risen 


rived 


riven 
rived 


ran 


run 


saw 


seen 


sod 


sodden 


seethed 


seethed 


shook 


shaken 


shone 


shone 


shined 


shined 


shrank 


shrunk 


shrunk 


(shrunken) 


sang 


sung 
sunk 
(sunken) 


sank 


sat 


sat 


slew 


slain 


slid 


slid 


slung 
(slang) 


slung 


slank 


slunk 


smote 


smitten 


spoke 


spoken 


sp'an /li 


spun 


sprang 
sprung 


sprung 


stood 


stood 


stole 


stolen 


stung 


stung 


stank 


stunk 


strode 


stridden 


struck 


struck 
stricken 


strove 


striven 


swore 


sworn 


swam 
swum 


swum 


swung 


swung 


took 


taken 


tore 


torn 


throve 


thriven 


thrived 


thrived 


threw 


thrown 


trod 


trodden 
trod 


woke 
waked 


waked 


wove 


woven 


won 


won 


wound 


wound 


wrung 


wrung 


wrote 


written 



ISToTE.— Old forms now going out of use, some of them being used only as 
adjectives, are placed in parentheses. Forms belonging to the Weak Conj . can 
readily be told . 



36 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 



WBAK YEBB8 WHICH SEEM IRREGULAR. 



95. 



bend 

bereave 

beseech 
bleed 
breed 
brin^ 

build 

burn 

burst 

buy 

cast 

catch 

cleave 

clothe 

cost 
creep 
cut 
deal 

dream 

dwell 

feel 
flee 

gild 

gird 

have 
hit 
hurt 
keep 

kneel 

knit 

lay 
lead 

learn 

leap 

leave 

let 

light 

lose 



bent 

bended 

bereft 

bereaved 

besought 

bled 

bred 

brought 

built 

build ed 

burnt 

burned 

burst 

bought 

cast 

caught 

cleft 

clad 

clothed 

cost 

crept 

cut 

dealt 

dreamt 

dreamed 

dwelt 

dwelled 

felt 

fled 

gilt 

gilded 

girt 

girded 

had 

hit 

hurt 

kept 

knelt 

kneeled 

knit 

knitted 

laid 

led 

learnt 

learned 

leapt 

left 

let 

lit 

lighted 

lost 



bent 

bended 

bereft 

bereaved 

besought 

bled 

bred 

brought 

built 

builded 

burnt 

burned 

burst 

bought 

cast 

caught 

cleft 

clad 

clothed 

cost 

crept 

cut 

dealt 

dreamt 

dreamed 

dwelt 

dwelled 

felt 

fled 

gilt 

gilded 

girt 

girded 

had 

hit 

hurt 

kept 

knelt 

kneeled 

knit 

knitted 

laid 

led 

learnt 

learned 

leapt 

left 

let 

lit 

lighted 

lost 



make 

mean 

meet 

pay 

put 



rap 

read 

rend 

rid 

say 

seek 

sell 

send 

set 

shed 

spill 

shoe 

shoot 

shut 

sleep 

sweep 

slit 

speed 

spend 

spit 

split 

spread 

sweat 

teach 
tell 
think 
thrust 

wet 

weep 

whet 

work 



made 

meant 

met 

paid 

put 

pent 

penned 

rapt 

read 

rent 

rid 

said 

sought 

sold 

sent 

set 

shed 

spilt 

spilled 

shod 

shot 

shut 

slept 

swept 

slit 

sped 

spent 

spit 

split 

spread 

sweat 

sweated 

taught 

told 

thought 

thrust 

wet 

wetted 

wept 

whet 

whetted 

worked 

wrought 



made 

meant 

met 

paid 

put 

pent 

penned 

rapt 

read 

rent 

rid 

said 

sought 

sold 

sent 

set 

shed 

spilt 

spilled 

shod 

shot 

shut 

slept 

swept 

slit 

sped 



split 

spread 

sweat 

sweated 

taught 

told 

thought 

thrust 

wet 

wetted 

wept 

whet 

whetted 

worked 

wrought 



SYNTAX. 



SENTENCE ANALYSIS. 



PHRASES AN"D CLAUSES. 

96. We have learned that in the structure of sentences 
there are eight different offices to be performed, each office 
requiring a different kind of word or part of speech. We may 
now learn that three of these offices, those of the noun, the 
adjective, and the adverb, may be filled by certain groups of 
words called Phrases and Clauses. 

PHBASES. 

97. Phrases are of four kinds ; Prepositional, Infinitive, 
Participial, and Substantive. 

98. The Prepositional Phrase is a preposition and its 
object with the words depending upon it ; as, in distant lands ; 
on a perilous voyage. It is used as adjective and as adverb and 
sometimes as noun. 

As Adjective : — the tree in the garden is dead; the books on 
the tahle are yours ; the cold of winter is severe. 

As Adverb : — he rode into the field; they walked to the station j 
he lies on the grass. 

As Noun : — " Into the hreach" the hero shouted ; " On to 
Richmond/' was the cry. But these and most other prep- 
ositional phrases that seem to be used as nouns may better, 
perhaps, be explained as depending upon words understood. 

99. The Infinitive Phrase is an infinitive and the words 
depending upon it. It may be the infinitive alone. The infin- 
itive phrase is much used as noun, adjective, or adverb. 



SS A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

As ISTouK : — to visit the sick is a Christian duty ; he loves to 
display his wealth. Inf. in ing : — I know nothing of her 
having done it ; his coming was unexpected. 

As Adjective : — ^^the horse to he sold is an iron grey ; here is a 
dog to hill. 

As Advekb : — he came to visit me ; apples are good to eat ; he 
travels to restore his health. 

100. A Participial Phrase is a participle and the words 
depending upon it. It may be a participle alone. The parti- 
cipial phrase is used as an adjective only, though it often mod- 
ifies a verb through the noun. 

As Adjective (purely) : the bird sitting 07i the tree is a robin ; 
a man despised hy his fellows is miserable indeed ; those 
living hy charity must take what they can get. 

As Adjective with adverhial force : — the moon, rising at sun- 
set, shone all night ; the boy, having left the main road, 
was lost in the forest. 

101. The Suhstantive Phrase consists of a substantive — 
noun or pronoun — modified by a participle, an infinitive, or an 
adjective. It is used as a noun or as an adverb. In the latter 
case it is the construction known as the Nominative Absolute. 
As Noun : — He felt his heart heating wildly ; the man was 

ordered to he hanged ; Henry caused the dog to he hilled ; 
we saw the wind whirling the clouds. 
As Adverb : — afire having hee7i hindled, we lay down upon the 
ground ; he left the room, his eyes full of tears ; honor lost, 
all is lost. 

subordinate clauses. 

102. A subordinate clause has a subject and predicate 
like a sentence but is used as a noun, adjective, or adverb in a 
sentence. 

As Nouns : — That he is lear7ied has been admitted ; he said 
that John had come ; we admit that he is careless. 

As Adjectives : — The man who says it is untruthful ; the gods 
help those who help themselves ; men who lounge on the 
street cannot hope to succeed in their profession. 

Note :— The student can not have too thorough knowledge of the nature and 
use of phrases and clauses. If he thoroughly understand these, there will be few 
difficulties for him in the analysis of sentences. Without such knowledge it is 
impossible for him to understand the structure of English sentences. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 39 

As Adverts : — We shall labor till the niglit comes ; he walks 
ivhile the tide is rising ; when the clouds disappear the sun 
will shine. 

Exercise. — (Tell the class and use of each phrase in these sentences.) 
1 . He is a man without principle. 2. I doubt his having been a 
soldier. 3. To train citizens is not the work of a day. 4. For- 
getting the things that are behind I press forward. 5. I like a 
rascal to be punished. 6. The wind rising, we were driven in 
doors. 7. The man in the field is my friend. 8. I am living in 
a most beautiful country. 9. The crime of being a young man I 
shall not attempt to deny. 10. The goods to be restored were 
much soiled. 11. The man wearing the gold-rimmed glasses is 
our pastor. 12. The wind, rising from the east, bore us swiftly 
along. 13. The criminal is observed to grow more anxious as his 
trial approaches. 14. The date of this important letter is omitted. 
15. The house was built by a wealthy man. 16. To meet danger 
boldly is better than to wait for it. 17. We recognize an old friend 
in the man to be hanged. 18. We ran to get our position. 19. 
The boy, seeing his danger, turned pale. 20. He seems to have 
made an injudicious choice. 21. The man having accepted our 
apology, we continued our journey. 22. He was seen covering his 
face. 23. We ran from the approaching tide. 24. To be totally 
indifferent to praise or censure is a defect of character. 25. They 
were advertising for a teacher to instruct the pupils in Latin. 26. 
He is anxious to be considered great. 27. Joseph, rushing into 
the street and shouting at the top of his voice, roused the village. 
28. We heard the girl singing in the parlor. 29. The child hav- 
ing been found, the party disbanded. 

Tell the oflBLce of the clauses in these sentences. 
1. A people whom I have not known shall serve me. 2. I must 
pause till it come back to me. 3. The triumph of my soul is, 
that I am. 4. If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes. 5. 
Whatever is, is right. 6. The evil that men do lives after them. 

7. We know that nations may be miserable even amid victories. 

8. Ye shall not eat of it, lest ye die. 9. He had done that which 
could never be forgiven. 10. Any man who attends to what 
passes within himself may easily discern that human character is 
a very complicated system . 11. One of the most useful effects of 
action is that it renders repose agreeable. 12. The chief misfor- 
tunes that befall us in life can be traced to some vices and follies 
which we have committed. 13. We can not perceive that the 
study of grammar makes the smallest difference in the speech of 
those who have always lived in good society. 14. While we 
breathe beneath the sun, the world, which credits what is done, is 
cold to all that might have been. 



40 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

PAET8 OF THE SENTENCE. 



103. In the analysis of sentences there are six parts to be 
considered ; the Subject, the Predicate, the Adjective Modifiers, 
the Adverb Modifiers, Connectives, and Disconnected Words. 

SUBJECT. 

104. The subject is that of which something is said. It 
may be a Noun ; as grass grows ; loys play ; — a Pronoun ; as, 
he laughs ; they sing ; — an Infinitive Phrase, as, to take 
strong drinh is folly ; to ie contents his natural desire ; — 
Substantive Phrase ; as3 the ma7i is known to he just ; the hook 
was found to he groiuing dull; — a Clause; as, that matter 
attracts matter is one of the great principles of science ; that 
the poivers of man are finite can hardly be denied. 

PEEDICATE. 

105. The Predicate is what is asserted of the subject, and 
must contain a verb. It may be a verb alone ; as, he thinks of me ; 
the horse rwis ; — or the predicate may be a verb and some word 
or words necessary to complete the sense. The added words 
may be (1) the Subjective Complement, (2) the Direct Object, 
or (3) the Objective Complement and the Direct Object. 

106. The Subjective Complement is used after certain 
intransitive verbs and after verbs in the passive voice, and 
either modifies the subject, or is identical with it. — Hence its 
name. The Subjective Comp. may be a Noun ; as, cows are 
animals ; he became a man ; — a Pronoun ; as, it is /; that man 
was you; — an Adjective; as, the man was good; he grew 
kind; — an Infinitive Phrase ; as, that is to steal; to lie is to 
sin; — A Participial Phrase; as, he sat smoking his pipe ; the 
ball went crashing through the window ; — a Clause ; as, his 
statement was, that he had not seen the man ; my opinion is, that 
he is dishonest. 

107. The Direct Object is that which receives the action 
expressed by the verb and may be said to complete the predicate, 
or statement made in regard to the subject. It may be 
a Noun or a Pronoun ; as, he saw the hoy ; John called 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 41 

Mm ; — a Phrase ; as, he loves to play ; I doubt his having lost 
the money ; — a Clause ; as, he saw that we laughed. 

108. The Objective Co7nplement is used with transitive 
verbs to complete the predicate and affects the direct object. — 
Hence the name. It may be a Noun ; as, they made Romulus 
King ; we elected him president ; — Adjective ; as, it made the 
man sick ; he laid the giant low ; — Infinitive Phrase ; as, he 
ordered the man to be hanged ; he causes the sun to shine ; 
Participial Phrase ; as, he felt his heart beating wildly ; we 
heard the pheasant drumming. 

Note. — The infinitives and participles under the last two heads 
may, more properly, perhaps, be considered as Complements of the 
object, ai3d together with the noun making a substantive phrase used 
as direct object. He ordered what ? the man to be hanged=that the 
man should be hanged. He felt what ? his heart beating=that his 
heart was beating. 

109. When the direct object of a verb with objective 
complement becomes the subject of the verb in the Pass. Voice 
then what was the Objective Oomp. becomes the Subjective 
Complement; as, ''he painted ihQ hon^Q ivhite," (objective,) 
becomes, ''the house was painted white," (subjective;) "they 
made him king, "He was made king ;" "we saw the electric 
current moving the balls," " the electric current was seen 
moving the balls " ; we knew him to be honest, he was known 
to be honest. 

Note. — Again it seems more appropriate to construe the noun and 
infinitive or participle as a substantive phrase used as subject. What 
was seen ? " the electric current moving," or that the electric current 
was moving the balls. What was known? " he to be honest," or that 
he was honest. In such cases the verb of course agrees with the noun 
in person and number. 

ADJECTIVE MODIFIERS. 

110. A noun, no matter in what part of the sentence it 
is found, may be modified by an Adjective ; as, sweet apples, 
good men ; — by a Possessive Pronoun ; as, his hat, my gun ; — by 
a Noun in the Possessive Case ; as, man's strength, God's law ; — 
by a Prepositional phrase ; as, the house on the hill ; a man of 
great discretion ; — by an Infinitive Phrase ; as, apples to eat ; the 
problem to be solved ; — by a Participial Phrase ; as, the boy 
leaving the house ; the star shining at morning ; — by a Clause ; 



42 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

as, the man ivliom we met ; the wind that hlotvs from the frozen 
north ; by an Appositive Noun, Phrase or Clause ; as, John, the 
blacksmith, did it ; this thought, to perish and be forgotten, 
appalls me ; this statement, that I left him, is untrue. 

ADVERB MODIFIERS. 

111. Any part of the verb no matter where found ( and 
also adjectives and adverbs to a great extent) may be modified 
by an Adverb ; as, he reads well ; the bird sings sweetly ; — by 
a Noun ; as, he walked a mile ; he went home ; — by a Preposi- 
tional Phrase ; as, it rains on the mountains ; we went to the 
valley ; — hy an Infinitive Phrase ; as, he came to see his friend ; 
he studies to learn ; — by a Sijbstantive Phrase ( the Nominative 
Absolute) as. The audience heing dismissed, we came home ; 
they retired, their hanners trailing in the dust ; — by a Clause ; 
as, he rides out when the mornings are fine', the balloon 
ascends till it pierces the shy. 

COKKECTIVES Ai^D DISCONi^ECTED WORDS. 

112. The Connectives are the Conjunctions and other 
words used to join the parts of a sentence. 

There are some expressions or words in English sentences 
which have no grammatical relation with the rest of the sen- 
tence ; as, words used by way of address. Interjections, 
Expletives. 

NOTE TO TEACHERS. 

As soon as the class have a fair idea of the general principles 
of analysis, it would be well to take up in connexion with this subject, 
the General Remarks on Syntax. 

Diagraming. — The teacher who prefers to make use of diagrams 
in teaching sentence analysis can, in a short time and with little 
trouble, give the class illustrations of the application of the diagram to 
various parts of the sentence as given on the following pages. In so 
doing he can make use of any system of diagraming that he prefers. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 



43 



DIAGRAM. 



113. We are now prepared for the following diagram 
showing the possible structures of the different parts of the 
sentence : 



Subject 



f Noun. 

I Pronoun. 

f Infinitive Phrase. 

I Substantive Phi"ase. 

L Clause. 



Predicate 



r Verb alone, 



-{ Verb and. 



Subj. 
Complement. . 



f Adjective. 
I Noun. 
! Pronoun. 
i Inf. Phrase. 
Part. Phrase. 
I Subst. Phrase, 
t Clause. 



Sentence. <{ 



fNoun or Pronoun. 
Direct Object ^'|^-^P,^^^g-^,, 
^.Clause. 



Obj. Comp. 



r Adjective. 
; Noun. 



(and Dir. Obj.) 1 Part. Phrase. 
Llnf. Phrase. 



C Adjective. 

I Possessive Pronoun. 

( Noun in the Poss. 

AdJ.Moamersri?«5'.KK: 
[ Part. Phrase. 
I Clause. 
I Appositive, 

f Adverb. 
I Noun. 

I Prepositional Phrase. 
Adv. Modifiers i Part Phrase . 
j Infin. Phrase. 
I Subst. Phrase. 
I Clause. 



Connectives . 



Disconnected Words. 



DIAGRAM ILLUSTRATED. 

114. The following sentences will illustrate the structure 
of the various parts of the sentence. 

SUBJECT. 

Noun. — The man is insane. Dogs bark. The bright sun in the sky 
shines upon the earth . 

Pronoun.— ITe thinks. We sleep. You are playing. They obey. 

Inf. Phrase. — To love our friends is a duty. To attend services at 
church is a privilege. To err in judgment is unfortunate. To 
improve by our mistakes is to rob them of the power to hurt. 



44 A YEAR IN ENCJLISH. 

Inf. in ing. — His coming to the city was a surprise. My having been 
detained delayed my arrival. Tom's being here was a lucky thing. 

SuBST. Phrase. — He is said to be coming. The man was known to be 
honest. The stars are thought to be suns. The wind was seen 
whirling the clouds about. The room was found to be empty. 

Clause. That we should so live is most desirable. That the earth is 
round is proved in many ways. That the criminal should thus 
escape the punishment due him is a disgrace to our country. How 
the intellectual and physical natures of man are connected has 
never been discovered. 

pkedicatl'. 
Verb Alone. — 

The wind 6Zow;s fiercely. Hours jpa6'6' swiftly away. The boy at 
his desk is working faithfully. The season tvill have passed ere we 
return. 
Verb and Subj. Comp.— 

Noun. — Boys are animals. Men sometimes become friends. 

Pronoun, — It is I. The man at the table is he. That man was 
you. 

Adjective. — God is good. The sight grows dim. His decision is 
unjust. 

Inf. Phrase. — His object was to defend himself. That were to 
be dishonest. To lie is to sin. 

Inf. in "ing." — Such conduct is defrauding your neighbor. His 
trouble was his having lost confidence in himself. 

Part. Phrase. — Thehoy went running. He sat smoking his pipe. 
The youth felt restrained. 

Clause. — His story is that he had paid the money. The old 
theory was that the earth is the center of the solar system. The 
grandest thought of the ages is that Christ died to redeem the world. 
Verb and Direct Object.— 

Noun. — He eats apples. They kill the birds. 

Pronoun. — We saw him. They love us. 

Inf. Phrase. — He loves to play. We desire to go. 

Subst. Phrase. — He felt his heart beat. They made him keep it. 

Clause. — He said that he would come. We believe that he is 
honest. 
Verb, Obj. Comp. ( and Dir. Obj) .— 

Noun. — They dubbed him Captain. We elected our man presi- 
ident. They believed John a rascal. The Jews made Saul their 
King. 

Adjective. — He turned the horse loose. She swept the room 
clean. He will drive me mad. We left him alone, 

Infin. Phrase. — He made the boy criy. We heard the bird sing 
sweetly. He held this truth to be self-evident. We saw the animal 
hurl the man to the ground. ( See 108.) 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 45 

Part. Phrase. — That man made his influence felt. They saw 
him leading the child, She keeps the spindles whirling. 

ADJECTIVE MODIFIERS. 

Adjective. — Good men pray. Bold warriors fight well. Ripe fruit 

is wholesome. 
Noun. — The mail's clothes are worn. John's hat is lost. The hoy^ 

kite ascends. 
Pronoun. — Their time is short. My hopes are lost. His theory is 

correct. 
Prep. Phrase. — The boy in the house is his son. The point of the needle 

is sharp. The hoy from the country is industrious. 
Inf. Phrase. — The house to he sold is out of repair. These are the 

apples to eat. This is the horse to buy. The problem to be solved 

is important. 
Part. Phrase. — The man, turning from the child, walked away. The 

man loved by his country should be proud and happy. The child, 

having been caught in a lie, was severely punished. The man 

writing the letter is the sheriff. 
Clause. — The house ivhich you see belongs to niy father. The place 

where he lives is very pleasant. The lady, whom we met on the 

street, lives in France. This is the man whose name you have so 

often seen in the papers. Here is a hoj from whom you may buy 

them. 
Appositive. — Paul, the apostle of the gentiles, wrote this ; I made this 

proposition, to let the boy go and remain myself ; this belief, that 

the earth is round, has been well established. 

ADVEEB MODIFIERS. 

Adverb. — He plays skilfully. The sun sinks slowly. He reasons ivell. 
Noun. — We slept eight hours. We drove five miles. He is two inches 

taller. The children went home. 
Prep. Phrase. — He walked into the room. He drives to the city. He 

lives in the mountains. 
Inf. Phrase.— He strives io do well, We ran to assist him. He fails 

to make others happy. George came to pay me the money. 
SuBST. Phrase. — This done, we proceeded. The boy having lost his 

money, we joined in the search. The tveather being unpleasant, he 

remained at home. He lay down, his heart heavy with sorrow. 
Clause. — The birds sing when spring conies. You play while we labor. 

I shall wait till you come. You must not walk out ivhen the grass 

is wet. 

GEl^ERAL THEORY. 

1 15. The general theory is, that noun phrases and clauses may 
be used in all relations where nouns are allowed ( except the Possessive ) 
and that adjective and adverb phrases and clauses may anywhere take 



46 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

the place of adjectives and adverbs. It is possible that there is not a 
single construction which this theory involves that may not be found 
in actual use ; but some of them are too exceedingly awkward and 
others are very rare indeed. The following sentences illustrate, some 
miscellaneous uses of noun, adjective, and adverb phrases and clauses : 
1. He is fond of entertaining his friends. 2. The man, telling his 
friends to be careful, left the room, 3. They insisted on his following 
them. 4. Knowing the man to be upright, I trusted all to him. 5. I 
see Mrs. Grant is anxious for her not finding Mansfield dull. 6. The 
farmer, knowing that his case was hopeless, left the court-room. 7. 
This thought, to die and be lost, ought to make us shudder. 8. It is 
painful to see your friends desert you. 9. This statement, that the 
earth revolves, was not believed by the ancients. 10. This is a matter 
for him to see after. 11. It is easy for a man to believe that the world 
is round. 12. He sinned in that he became angry. 

COMPOUND FORMS. 

116. Almost any part of a sentence, clause, or phrase may be 
compound — that is there may be tw^ or more words or expressions 
having the same relation to the rest of the sentence. 

SUBJECT. 

Noun. — Men, women, and children ran into the street. Horses, mules, 
cows, sheep, and hogs were driven together. 

Inf. Phrase. — To think, to determine, and to act required but a 
moment. To five an honest and upright life before all men, to 
develop in due proportion all the powers of his being, and to strive 
earnestly to assist others to do right is the duty of every man. His 
running into such wild excesses, and his leaving school before 
graduating were the causes of his father's displeasure. 

Clauses. — That man might be saved from the terrible effects of sin, 
and that God might be glorified by his victory over the powers of 
darkness were two objects of the great plan of redemption. That 
the earth is the great central furnace which supplies the solar sys- 
tem with light and heat ; that the planets revolve in their orbits 
about this center ; and that the earth is only one of the smallest of 
these planets, are the propositions discussed in the following 
chapter. 

PREDICATE. 

Verb alone.— 

Joseph reads, writes, and spells. The bird comes in the spring 
and builds its nest near the house. He believes your statement, 
but has no confidence in your ability. 



a year in english. 47 

Verb and Subj. Comp.— 

Adj. and Noun. — He has ever been moral and has now become 
religious. He is already a brute and will soon become a fiend. 

Inf. Phrase. — He seems to be a gentleman and is said to be 
highly educated. To a casual observer the prisoner appeared to be 
innocent, but was found to be guilty of a ghastly crime. 

Clause. — With this young gentleman the question at first was, 
" Whom shall I marry" but afterwards became, " Who will marry 
me?" 
Verb and Direct Object. — 

Noun or Pronoun. He studies Greek, German and Latin. I 
saw him and them. 

Inf. Phrase. — The king loves to hunt wild animals and to engage 
in other sports. We strive to develop our intellects, to acquire 
knowledge, and to live worthy lives. 

SuBST. Phrase. — We saw timbers flying through the air, immense 
buildings tumbling to pieces, and crowds of people rushing into 
the streets. 

Clause.— We believe that the soul is immortal, that this life is 
probationary, and that in the future state the good will be separated 
from the wicked. 
Verb and Obj. Comp. ( and Dir. Obj. ) 

Adj. and Noun. — He made himself infg.mous and ran his mother 
wild. They set him free but held his son a slave. 

Phrases. — He makes the sun to shine and causes the rain to fall. 
He had the fiddle brought from the cabin and set the party dan- 
cing on the lawn. 

Mixed Predicates. ( Of this class there is a great variety. Only 
a few examples will be given. ) — 1. He is fair and kind. 2. He 
turned lawyer and statesman. 3. The propositions are that God 
is omniscient and that he is perfectly just. 4. My intention is to 
visit the springs and return with my cousin, 5. This man appears, 
and really is, a perfect gentleman. 6. His desire is, has ever been, 
and always will be, that all men should be saved. 7. Religion 
makes men pure and noble. 8. It makes and keeps us pure. 9, 
He is a felon and has made life a wreck. 10. He grew very affable 
and made his old enemies become his friends. 11. He left his 
mansion in the sky and is the lowly man of grief. 

ADJECTIVE modifiers. 

Adjectives. — A bright, beautiful, and graceful girl met us at the door. 
He proved a vain and tiresome talker. 

Nouns. — John s and Robert's hats are old. 

Prep. Phrase. — He was a man in good health and of cheerful disposi- 
tion. They planned a conspiracy against their leader and in oppo- 
sition to his plans. 



48 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

Inf. Phrase. — This is a principle to be adopted by all and to be acted 
upon everywhere. We now come to the question to be discussed 
in this assembly, to be decided by your votes and to be reopened at 
our next assembly. 

Part. Phrase. — Looking deliberately around the room and scrutinizing 
closely everything in it, he took his seat. The speaker, laying 
aside the formalities of introduction, launching at once into the 
main part of his discourse, and laying bare the very heart of the 
subject, carried his audience as if by storm. Almost worshipped by 
his friends and honored even by his enemies, he held his position 
by right of superiority. 

Clause. — The affairs that demand the highest powers of discrimina- 
tion and that engage attention most constantly are those of every- 
day life. He who lives as becomes a man, who manages well his 
own affairs, and who shuns not the affairs of state will hold the 
confidence of his fellow men. 

adverb modifiers. 

Adverb or Noun. — He governs firmly, smoothly and kindly. We 
fasted a night and a day. 

Prep. Phrase. — The ball went over the fence and into the road. He 
passed through the garden, down the alley, and over the bridge. 
In the wood and by the stream, the flowers sprang and stood. 

Inf. Phrase. — He came to^help us and, if necessary, to spill his blood 
for us. I rise, my lords, to oppose this bill, to point out the dan- 
gers arising from this infamous measure, and to vindicate the 
cause of justice and common honesty. 

SUBST. Phrase. — The rain having ceased and the sun coming out glor- 
iously, we issued from our retreat. The troops having been 
recalled from the other side of the river and the whole army drawn 
up before day break, the long march was begun. 

Clause — He walks forth in the morning while the dew is sparkling on 
leaf and flower and the birds are singing in the trees above 
him. While life remains, while this heart continues to throb with 
sentiments of honor, and while this brain performs its usual func- 
tions, I will not submit to such injustice. This little bird remain s 
and sings till the flowers have faded from the most sheltered coves, 
till the leaves have fallen from most of the trees, and till all other 
birds have taken their departure for warmer climes. 

CAUTION. 

In accordance with the principles laid down above, may be 
analyzed nine out of every ten sentences formed in English. But it ' 
may be that the tenth will not submit to any such analysis. This does 
not prove that the system is at fault. The system is comprehensive 
and thorough. It embraces the principles which underlie the structure 
of the English sentence. On the other hand the student is, above all 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH, 49 

things, cautioned not to imagine that the sentence is incorrect and 
must be corrected in order to force it into any set form. Such sen- 
tences may, indeed, have started in error ; but what was once error is 
now correct, idiomatic English. Many of these sentences are, in fact, 
the strongest and most expressive in the language and we would not 
for any consideration have them changed. But see 151. 



ABBREVIATED SENTENCES. 



117. A very large proportion of the sentences in English are 

abbreviated, that is, not all the words are expressed which originally 

belong with such sentences. In order to understand the structure of 

these sentences the omitted words must be supplied, A few examples 

are given with the words to be supplied placed in brackets. From 

these the student may learn to fill out others. It must not be imagined 

that this filling out process is an improvement of the sentences. Many 

of them can hardly be filled out without violence to the English of the 

sentence. 

1. He is taller than you [are tall], 2. I am not so large as Henry 

[is large]. 3. Though [he was] honest,' he was not trusted. 4. 

God is thy law, thou [art ] mine. 5. When will you return? In 

the morning [ I shall return]. 6. This statement, if [it be] true, 

is important. 7. He is as mean as [he] ever [ was.] 8. I regard 

him as [ I regard ] a friend. 9. [ Though I love you as] much as 

I love you, I cannot help you. 10. We have no slaves at home, 

then why [ have we slaves] abroad? 11, He attended school at 

Yale, you [attended school ] at Harvard, 12, [ I wish you ] good 

morning, ladies. 



CLASSES OF SENTENCES 



118. Sentences may be divided into four classes, Simple, Com- 
plex, Compound, and Serai-compound. 

119. A Simple sentence is one that has but one subject and 
one predicate ; as, the man from the country has built a house in town ; 
the bright little fellow in the class has just recited an excellent lesson. 

1 20. A Complex sentence is one that contains a subordinate 
clause ; i, e., a clause used as noun, adjective, or adverb ; as, the boy 



50 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

whom you recommend is worthy of the place ; I went not where he 
was ; the man said that he would come. 

121. A Compound sentence is composed of two or more inde- 
pendent clauses connected by conjunctions ; as, he came, but I remained 
at home ; the journey was long, and the roads were almost impassable. 

122. A Semi-compound sentence is one that has a compound 
subject or a compound predicate ; as, the trees in the yard and the 
vines in the garden are putting forth their leaves ; he went into the 
country and remained three days. 

123. A sentence may be compound or semi-compound and at 
the same time complex ; as, the times in which we live are perilous, 
and the indications point to great changes ; the book which you sent 
me was gladly received and has proved a source of great comfort 
to me. 

FORM FOR ANALYSIS. 

124. In the analysis of sentences observe the following order : 
1. Name the class of the sentence, and if complex, compound, or 
semi-compound, tell what makes it so. 2. Point out the subject 
and predicate. 3. Tell of what the subject consists ; point out 
and name all its modifiers, beginning with the shortest and giving 
them in the order of their length. 4. Do the same with the pred- 
icate. 5. Analyze all the clause and phrase modifiers, first of the 
subject and then of the predicate. 

The beautiful daughter of fashion whom we met yesterday lives 
in Louisville, and will return to that city when her aunt goes east* 
1. A semi-compound, complex sentence, made seml-comp. by 
two predicates "lives "and " will return ;" and made complex by 
the clauses " whom we met yesterday" and " when her aunt goes 
east." 2. Subject daughter ; predicates lives and will return. 

3. The subject is a noun and is modified by the two adjectives 
'the' and 'beautiful,' by the prep, phrase ' of fashion ' ; and by 
the clause ' whom we met yesterday.' 

4. The first predicate is a verb alone and is modified by the prep, 
phrase ' in Louisville ;' the second predicate is a verb alone and is 
modified by the prep, phrase ' to that city,' and by the clause 
' when her aunt goes east.' 5. 'Of fashion' is a prep, phrase in 
which 'of is the preposition and ' fashion ' the object ; ' whom 
we met yesterday ' is a clause of which we is the subject, a pro 
noun unmodified, and met whom^ is the predicate, consisting of 
the verb " met " and its object, whom, etc., etc. 

SENTENCES. 

1. The king of shadows loves a shining mark. 3. To be contents 
his natural desire. 3. I shall not now go behind the general 
statement. 4. I have given him the parsonage of the parish. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 51 

5. Then the horrors of Indian war were let loose on the fair val- 
leys. 6. The young man became exceedingly gay in after years. 
7. He wrote to the man in terms of the greatest severity. 8. He 
walked himself tired. 9. The boy grew taller during the year. 
10. To suppose this thing true shows our lack of confidence in the 
man. 11. Time passes rapidly in the years of maturity, 12. Duty 
is the watch word of the Christian. 13. The boy was supposed to 
have told a lie. 14. The duke made the robbers leave his country. 

15. The boy, turning from his mother, went into the street. 

16. The price to be paid for the goods was exorbitant. 17. The 
man that performs all the duties of a citizen deserves to be trusted 
by his friends. 18. The Enghsh, desperately assailed, did not 
yield an inch. 19. The school-house, being neglected, fell into 
decay. 20. Wealth gotten by ill means is an eternal reproach. 

21. He that hath wife and child hath given hostages to fortune. 

22. That fearful moment when he left the cave thy heart grew 
chill. 23. That it is our duty to obey the teachings of the Bible 
does not admit of question. 24. The man who goes under the 
water for gems or pennies is called a diver. 25. Hill and woody 
grove echo back their song. 26. He heard the king's command 
and saw that writing's truth. 

27. Here art and commerce, with auspicious reign, 
Once breathed sweet influence on the happy plain. 

28. The vine still clings to the mouldering wall, 
And at every gust the dead leaves fall. 

29. Few and short were the prayers we said, 
And we spoke not a word of sorrow, 

But we silently gazed on the face of the dead. 
And we bitterly thought of the morrow. 

30. He builds a palace of ice where the torrent falls. 31. Love 
took up the harp of life and smote on all its chords. 32. The 
beautiful house at the turn of the road was burned to the ground 
during the coldest weather. 33. He possessed that rare union of 
reason, simplicity, and vehemence which formed the prince of 
orators. 34. At these words he stretched out his right hand and 
laid it on the boy's head. 

35. To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die. 36. Whilst the 
author is yet alive we estimate his powers by his worst production , 
when he is dead, we estimate them by his best. 37. To do the 
duty which falls to our lot, to love our fellow men with real love, 
and to serve God with our whole souls are some of the evidences of 
a christian life. 
SB. When Freedom, from her mountain height, 

Unfurled her standard to the air. 

She tore the azure robe of night 

And set the star of glory there. 



52 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

39. How shall I know thee in the sphere which keeps 
The disembodied spirits of the dead, 
When all of thee that time could wither sleeps 
And perishes among the dust we tread. 

-^0. In the meadows fanned by heaven's life-giving wind, 
In the resplendence of that glorious sphere, 
And larger movements of the unfettered mind, 
Wilt thou forget the love that joined us here? 

ADAMS AND JEFFERSON . 

1. This is an unaccustomed spectacle. For the first time, fellow- 
citizens, badges of mourning shroud the columns and overhang the 
arches of this hall. These walls, which were consecrated, so long ago, 
to the cause of American liberty, which witnessed her infant struggles 
and rung with the shouts of her earliest victories, proclaim, now, that 
distinguished friends and champions of that great cause have fallen. 
It is right that it should be thus. The tears which flow, and the honors 
that are paid, when the founders of the republic die, give hope that 
the republic itself may be immortal. It is fit that, by public assembly 
and solemn observance, by anthem and by eulogy, we commemorate 
the services of national benefactors, extol their virtues, and render 
thanks to God for eminent blessings, early given and long continued , 
through their agency, to our favored country. 

3. Adams and Jefferson are no more ; and we are assembled fel- 
low-citizens, the aged, the middle-aged, and the young, by the 
spontaneous impulse of all, under the authority of the municipal gov- 
ernment, with the presence of the Chief Magistrate of the Common- 
wealth, and others of its official representatives, the University, and 
the learned societies, to bear our part in those manifestations of respect 
and gratitude which pervade the whole land. Adams and Jefferson 
are no more. On our fiftieth anniversary, the great day of national 
jubilee, in the very hour of public rejoicing, in the midst of echoing 
and re-echoing voices of thanksgiving, while their own names were on 
all tongues, they took their flight together to the world of spirits. 

3. If it be true that no one can safely be pronounced happy while 
he lives, if that event which terminates life can alone crown its honors 
and its glory, what felicity is here ! The great epic of their lives ; how 
happily concluded ! Poetry itself has hardly terminated illustrious 
lives, and finished the career of earthly renown, by such a consumma- 
tion. If we had the power, we could not wish to reverse this dispen- 
sation of the Divine Providence. The great objects of life were 
accomplished ; the drama was ready to be closed. It has closed ; our 
patriots have fallen ; but so fallen, at such age, with such coincidence, 
on such a day, that we can not rationally lament that that end has 
come, which we knew could not be long deferred. 

4. Neither of these great men, fellow-citizens, could have died at 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 53 

any time, without leaving an immense void in our American society. 
They have been so intimately, and for so long a time, blended w-ith the 
history of the country, and especially so united, in our thoughts and 
recollections, with the events of the Revolution, that the death of 
either would have touched the chords of public sympathy . We should 
have felt that one great link, connecting us with former times, was 
broken ; that we had lost something more, as it were, of the presence 
of the Revolution itself, and of the act of Independence, and were 
driven on, by another great remove from the days of our country's 
early distinction, to meet posterity, and to mix with the future. Like 
the mariner, whom the currents of the ocean and the winds carry along, 
till he sees the stars which have directed his course and lighted his 
pathless way descend, one by one, beneath the rising horizon, we 
should have felt that the stream of time had borne us onward till 
another great luminary, whose light had cheered us and whose guid- 
ance we had followed, had sunk away from our sight. 

— Webster. 



GENERAL REMARKS ON SYA^TAX. 



CASES. 

125. The Nominative Absolute must be carefully distin- 
guished from the subject of a verb modified by a participle. The Nom. 
Abs. cannot be the subject of a verb. Nom. Abs : — I being young, 
they deceived me. Subject with participle :— I, being young, was 
deceived by them. Nom. Abs : — The foliage stripped off, the forest 
was gray and bare. Subj. with participle: — The forest, stripped of its 
foliage, was gray and bare. 

Nom. Abs. Subj. with Participle. 

1. They refusing to comply, I 1. The horse, being old and worth- 

withdrew, less, was sold. 

2. Thou looking on, I shall not 2. Theodore, being careless in his 

fail. studies, was sent home. 

3. He having ended his discourse, 3. The man, having recovered, 

the assembly dispersed. proceeded on his way. 

126. The Subjective Complement, or Nominative after the 
verb, is used regularly after certain verbs ; as, be, become, appear, seem ; 
and a great many intransitive verbs are sometimes followed by it. 
This complement is often called the Predicate Noun or Adjective . The 



54 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

student will best learn what verbs and what uses of the verbs take 
this construction by observing the following sentences : 
1. John remains casMe?'. 2. He continues fcmd. 3. It stays coZd. 
4. The door stands open. 5. He sits quiet. 6. He is going 
crazy. 7. We grew tired. 8. He got sick. 9. George turned 
Democrat. 10. Jane looks icear?/. 11. It smells good. 12. His 
voice sounds harsh. 13. The apple tastes sour. 14. Velvet feels 
smooth. 15. She walks a gz*een . (Many others might be added.) 

1 27. Verbs which in the Active voice take an objective com- 
plement take the Subjective complement when they are in the passive ; 
as, he was named John ; the stick was made straight ; Washington 
was elected president. 

128. Objective Complement is sometimes very properly 
called the Factitive Predicate, because it expresses a condition which 
is the result of the action expressed by the verb. He painted the 
house white. Here white is the result of painting. In like manner 
these : The president appointed him secretary ; he read himself blind ; 
they'll drink the ocean dry ; we made him captain. 

But not every Obj. Comp. is a Fact. Pred. ; as, they found him dead. 
Here dead is not the result of finding. They considered him reliable. 
They caught him stealing. 

129. Indirect Object. — Besides the direct object transitive 
verbs frequently take after them an object indirectly affected by the 
verb. This is sometimes called the Dative Objective. The relation 
may be expressed by ' to ' or ' for ' and in modern English one of these 
prepositions is generally supplied when the Indirect follows the Direct 
object ; as, he gave me the book, but, he gave the book to me ; George 
made Robert a bat, but, George made a bat for Robert. So : he paid 
the man his wages ; she gave the tramp a breakfast ; they sent him his 
gun ; my friend wrote me a letter. 

130. Adverbial Objective. — Nouns used to denote measure 
of time, space, age, number, value, or difference are put in the Objec- 
tive case, called Adverbial objective, because it is used with the force 
of an adverb modifying verbs, adjectives, and adverbs ; as, He labored 
all night ; We walked ten miles ; The boy is ten years old ; The enemy 
are a thousand strong ; The knife is worth two dollars ; I am three 
inches taller than you. 

131. Cognate Object. — Many intransitive verbs take after 
them an object similar to the verb in meaning. This is called the Cog- 
nate Object ; as, They ran a race ; He danced a Jig ; She slept the sleep 
of death ; He lived a noble life ;. He laughed a coarse laugh ; I dreamed 
a dream. 

132. Objective After Adjectives. —The adjectives like, 
unlike, near, and perhaps some others, take after them a noun or pro- 
noun in the Objective case — we may perhaps say the Indirect object or 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 55 

Dative objective ; as, James is like his father ; this is unUke anything I 
ever saw ; the man has a place very near my heart. 

PRONOUN. 

133. You AND Thou. — Formerly thou was used in address- 
ing one person. It is the regular singular of the second person but we 
have now ceased to use it except in prayer, in poetry, in the Bible, 
and in some of the higher styles of prose. Like a number of other 
modern languages. English uses the plural " you " in addressing one 
as well as a multitude. But you, though sometimes referring to one 
person, is always plural and always takes the plural verb. Not you 
icas, but you loere, always, 

1 34. It AND There. — Besides its use as the neuter sing, of 
the third person of the pronoun, it has one or two peculiar uses : 

I. In a kind of indefinite sense it refers to the weather, time or mat- 
ter generally ; as, it is warm ; it snows ; it is noon ; it will come to 
the worst before that time. 

II. It is used without any special meaning as the grammatical sub- 
ject of a verb in order that the real subject may come after the 
verb. This is especially true when the real subject is a phrase or 
clause ; as, it is good to be here. In this ' to be here ' is the real 
subject : To be here is good. It is not settled that he will come — 
that he will come is not settled. 

'T/iere' has about the same use as this last use of it, with the 
difference that ' there ' is never the grammatical subject, and the verb 
always agrees with the subject which follows ; as, there was a man ; 
there were wars ; there was a man here yesterday. ' There ' has no 
adverbial force in such sentences. 

135. Compound Personal Pronouns have two uses : 

I. They are used to add emphasis. This may be called the Intensive 
use ; as, I shall go myself ; the King himself shall be my counselor ; 
I saw the bride herself. Sometimes the compound form alone is 
used ; as, Thyself shall see the Act. 

II. They are used in a Reflexive sense ; that is, to show that the 
subject of a relation is also the object of it ; as, he strikes himself ; 
she blamed herself ; they proved themselves. 

136. Relatives.— TF/io has but one form for Mas., Fem., 
Sing, and Plu. It may be the first, second, or third person ; as, I 
who am thy senior ; thou who art so kind to me ; he who was 
secretary. 

137. What and the compound whoever, etc., are sometimes 
equivalent to two words ; as, ' 'what you say is true " is equivalent to 
" that which you say is true ;" " whoever wiU may come " is equivalent 
to " /le ivho will may come." Who is sometimes used in the same way ; 
as, " who steals my purse steals trash." 



£6 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

This use of these pronouns must be distinguished from the use of 
some of them in indirect questions, where they are interrogative and 
not relative. " I know who will bring it," does not by any means sig- 
nify, " I know him who will bring it," but the indirect question, '• who 
will bring it," is the object of the verb know. " I asked what he had" 
does not mean, " I asked that which he had." The adverbial conjunc- 
tions when and where are used in the same way. 

Double Relative. Indirect Interrogative. 

1. I meant ivhat I said. 1. I asked ivhat he said. 

2. Whom he sends receive ye. 2. Have you heard whom he married ? 

3. This is where I live. 3. I know where he is going. 

4. I shall return when I can. 4. He asked when I would return. 

138. Possessive Pronouns, or Adjective pronouns, or pro- 
nominal adjectives — all of which names have been applied to them— 
are words derived from the Po ss. case of the personal pronouns and 
used as adjectives. These words were once declined like the same 
words in Latin and German ; but when the endings were lost — as they 
afterwards were — they came to have the same form as the Poss. case 
of the pronouns from which they were derived. Hence the mistake 
that the grammars have so often made in calling them the Poss. case. 
The Poss. case of the personal pronowns is not met with in modern 
English. The forms mine, thine, ours, etc., are but variations of the 
same words and are now used when the modified word is omitted ; as, 
this is my book, and that, also, is mine. 

ADJECTIVES. 

139. Attributive, Appositive and Predicate Adjectives. — 
An adjective that modifies a noun in the usual way, coming before it, is 
called an Attributive adjective ; as sweet apples ; beautiful women ; the 
happy youth. One that follows the noun it modifies, as, if, a sort of 
after-thought, is called an Appositive adjective ; as, the father, old and 
feeble ; the maiden, young and gay. One used in the predicate is called 
a Predicate adjective ; as, God is good ; man is weak. 

PREPOSITIONS. 

140. Object of Preposition. — As we have before seen prepo- 
sitions may have phrases and clauses as their objects ; as, he comes 
from over the sea ; he was accused of killing a man ; the footman comes 
with, ''madam, dinner stays f' he lies in that he says lam a coward. 

But a preposition may sometimes take an adverb as its object ; 
as, from above ; between here and there ; since then ; till now. 

141. Prepositions Modified. — A preposition may be modified 
by an adverb ; as, he went far beyond the lakes ; the bird flew exactly 
over the tree ; a tree stood just below the bridge. In other cases the 
adverb modifies the entire phrase ; as, he is ruinously in debt ; she 
seems deeply in earnest ; that is entirely with you. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 57 



VERBS. 



142. Impersonal Vebrs are those used only in the third 
person singular with a sort of indefinite subject ; as, it snows ; it is cold '•> 
it appears so ; it seems. The last two are also used in the ordinary 
way. To this class formerly belonged a number of verbs that are not 
now so used ; as, repent, please, shame, think and others. 

143. Is Come, Is Gone, etc. — Some of the modern languages 
require certain instransitive verbs to form their perfect, pluperfect and 
future perfect tenses with the verb he instead of have. In English the 
same classs, or a similar class of verbs may form these tenses with 
either " be " or " have ; " as, he has come, or he is come ; he had gone, 
or he was gone ; he will have gone, or he will be gone. 

144. Infinitives and Participles.— If the student has 
studied carefully the uses of phrases, which include infinitives and 
participles, but little more need be added. 

It is worthy of our attention, however, that infinitives and 
participles take after them both the Subjective and the Objective 
complement. The Subjective Comp. may be said to refer to what 
would be the subject of the verb if it were finite. The following 
are examples of the complements used with these forms : To be 
good ; seeming a friend ; to 'make me pure ; having called him a 
rascal ; watching the shadows move. 

The infinitives and participles also take the direct object in all 
its forms, the indirect object, and are otherwise modified just as the 
finite verb ; as, the man, seeing that he was too late, turned and went 
back ; refusing to comply with this, he was left ; giving me the wink, he 
passed out ; he came to say that he could not remain ; weeping bitterly 
over his fate, he passed into the dark cold night ; to stand firmly on 
principle is the manly way. 

the indicative mode. 

145. The indicative is the normal form of the verb. Plain, 
simple statements, questions, etc. are made in this mode. Unfortu- 
nately for us, we have fallen into the habit of using the indicative 
whete we should use the subjunctive, that is in clauses that express 
doubt, condition, concession, etc. We depend upon the conjunctions 
to express what should be expressed by the verb. There are at present 
some evidences of a return to the subjunctive. 

146. Use of the Tenses.— The tenses of the indicative are 
also of normal force. Ordinarily they have the exact force indicated 
by their form and the meaning generally attached to them, with one 
or two exceptions : I. The Present is sometimes used for the future ; 
as, I go to-morrow ; I shall see him when he comes, 

II. The Pres. is sometimes used for the past to add vividness, or 



58 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

animation to narration or description ; as, " It is the hour of midnight : 
the assassin steals upon his victim ; he raises the dagger ; he strikes the 
the fatal blow." 

THE SUBJUNCTIVE MODE. 

147. The proper treatment of the English subjunctive is a 
most difficult matter. A full discussion of the subject is beyond the 
scope of this vrork. The subject is vrorthy of the most careful study. 
We can give but the merest outline here. 

148. I. The Tenses op the Subjunctive. — We can dis- 
cover in the English of to-day the use of three tenses with a trace of 
the fourth. They are the present, the past, the pluperfect, and a trace 
of the perfect. Very often the time denoted by these tenses in the 
subjunctive is one degree removed from that expressed by the same 
tenses in the indicative, that is, the present frequently — but by no 
means always— indicates futurity ; as, though he strive, it will not save 
him ; if he be reinstated we shall rejoice ; — the past tense often denotes 
present time ; as, were I king ; — the pluperfect denotes simply pastime ; 
as, had he attended to his business he would not now be in want of a 
position. But the present often denotes present time, as, if he be 
honest I shall get my money ; and the past tense sometimes refers to 
the future ; as, if he came I could not receive him. 

149. II. The Uses of the Subjunctive.* — Of these there 
are a great number and variety. We shall mention some of the more 
important : 

The Imperative Subjunctive.— This is used as a mild form of com- 
mand ; as, come one, come all ; some one shut the door. 

Optative Subjunctive. — This is used to express a wish ; as, well, then 
be it so ; the Lord bless thee. 

Subjunctive of Conclusion. — This use of the subjunctive follows an 
expressed or implied condition, either contrary to the fact or purely 
in supposition ; as, if all were true, ' twere better all unknown ; what 
had it served had you approved ? 

In many cases the condition is only implied by the nature of the 

case, or expressed by participle or otherwise ; as, what were life 

stripped of its purple robes? 'twere good you let him know it ; it 

had been base to leave our leader thus. 

Note. — These three uses of the subjunctive are found in prmci- 

pal clauses ; those which follow in subordinate clauses. 

Subjunctive of Condition. — This is of exceedingly common use and 
of several varieties ; as, if he were here I know he would oppose : 
if this be true, then all is lost ; if he had told me this I should not 
have come. 



* The first clear exposition of the various uses of the subjunctive was brought 
out in an article by Prof. E. A. Allen, in Education, November, 1887. I have made 
free use of that article. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 59 

Subjunctive op Concession. — Conceded or admitted contingencies may 

be expressed by the subjunctive; as, though he slay me, yet will I 

serve him ; though he pull with his might, he can never reach 

shore. 

SuBJ. OF Purpose. — (This explains itself.) Look thou to it he 

leave not the room ; pray that thou live to see it. 
SuBJ. OF Result. — He that smiteth a man so that he die, etc. 
Sub J. OF Indirect Question. — I care not whether it he he ; she asked 

me whether he were a stranger. 
SuBJ. After Verbs of Saying, etc. — This is used after verbs of 
saying, thinking, wishing, fearing, doubting and others ; as, he 
thinks 'twere safest left undone ; I wish that it icere true. 
SuBJ. in Temporal Clause. — Do this ere thou go; Ridotta sips and 

dances till she see, etc. ; I must pause till it come back to me. 
Sl^j. in Substantive Clause. — I proposed that he go to the 
merchant ; it is right that he suffer the penalty. 

150. Nearly all of these uses of the subjunctive may be 
found in modern English, but for most of them we ^^'equently substi- 
tute other forms of expression, and some of them have given way 
almost entirely to the periphrastic subjunctive (see 90) to the indica- 
tive, and to other forms of expression. Examples have been given 
in the second and third persons singular, because in these we can 
observe the difference in form. When the pupil becomes familiar with 
the subjunctive and its uses in these, he will readily distinguish it in 
the other persons and numbers. 

The teacher can do no better work than call the attention of the 
student to the use of the subjunctive and point out how much more 
elegant and exact it is than the substitutes to which we so often resort. 

EXAMPLES of THE SUBJUNCTIVE, 

(Let the student point out and classify the subjunctives in these 
sentences) : 

1. Green be the turf above thee. 2. He will maintain his cause 
though he lose his estate. 3. If I were to write he would not regard 
it. 4. O, that there were yet a day to redress thy wrongs ! 5. Be 
it a trifle, it should be well done. 6. He will never equal hi^ 
brother in singing, sing he never so well. 7. What's a tall man 
unless he fight? 8. The heart mistrusting, asks if this be joy. 
9. I feared lest it might anger thee. 10. If there be some weaker 
one give me strength to help him on. 11. Where you are liberal, 
be sure you be not loose. 12. Tho' honesty be no Puritan, yet it 
will do no hurt. 13. If to do were as easy as to know what were 
good to do, chapels had been churches. 14. Sing we to our God 
above. 15. Perish the thought. 16. Gather up the fragments that 
nothing be lost. 17. Take heed thou speak not to Jacob. 18. If 
he were sick I would visit him. 19. Let him take heed lest he fall. 



60 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

BOME PECULIAR IDIOMS. 



151. So far we have considered those forms, principles, and 
idioms to which our language conforms in a general way. But the 
student is warned that he will find a great number of forms of words' 
expressions, phrases, and constructions that do not conform to these 
rules and principles, and, indeed, cannot be made to conform to any 
system of grammar. 

If, however, we go back and study the language as it was spoken 
and written hundreds of years ago, and trace the changes it has under- 
gone and the mistakes that were made while these changes were tak- 
ing place, we shall be able to explain how these peculiar forms and 
constructions came into use and how utterly impossible it is to account 
for them by any system of grammar rules. As the student proceeds in 
the historical study of English and acquaints himself with the older 
forms and constructions he will be able to explain these peculiar uses 
for himself. In the meantime it is necessary that he have explained 
for him a few of these peculiar and difficult expressions which are so 
common in our language. Without some assistance on these points he, 
is sure to find trouble, and just as sure to fall into grave error. 

On the following pages will be mentioned some of the most com- 
mon of these peculiar idioms — only a very few. Many others in just 
as common use are not mentioned here. May the thought of their exist- 
ence in ordinary speech stimulate the student to acquire an historical 
knowledge of English by which alone these idioms can be accounted 
for. 

152. " Many a." — In the older forms of English many was 
used before singular as well as plural nouns and had about the mean- 
ing that " many a " now has. The a afterwards came to be used with 
it and was placed after it for some reason just as a is placed after such 
and what. In "such a man," " what a man," and "many a man," 
such, what, and many are to be parsed as adjectives modifying man. 
The a is a separate word and modifies man. 

1 53. " A POUND," " A YEAR." — In the sentences " It is worth 
two dollars a pound " the ' a ' before pound is not the article a, but the 
remnant of an old preposition about equivalent to the Latin per in per 
annum. Two dollars a day is two dollars per diem, for the day. " Ten 
cents a yard," " Ten dollars a month," " Two hundred dollars a year." 

154. <' All THE BETTER." — In this expression 'all' may be 
considered an adverbial objective or simply an adverb, equal to 
altogether. In like manner, " allin a flurry," " all out of breath," in 
*' he was all in a flurry " and, " he ran up all out of breath." 

155. "What with this and what with that."— In the 
sentence " what with driving and what with coaxing, he carried his 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 61 

point " what may be treated as an adverb like somewhat, nearly equiva- 
lent to *' partly." So we may read, 'partly by driving and partly by 
coaxing he carried his point.' 

156. "Each other," "one another," etc. — Take notice 
that when we say, "they love each other,'' each and other do not form 
a compound pronoun but "each" is the subject and "other" the 
object of loves understood ; thus, they love, each [loves the] other. In 
like manner treat ' one another.' 

157. "Both — and," "either — or," efc— Of the so called 
correlative conjunctions, both — and, either — or, neither — nor, the first 
members are not really conjunctions at all but pronouns. This may 
readily be seen by changing a little the arrangement, or the punctua- 
tion ; thus, " both John and James, went " becomes ' both went, John 
and James ' ; or, ' both, John and James went.' "Either John or James 
will go " becomes, ' either will go, John or James.' 

1 58. " The more the better." — In the sentence, "the more 
there are the better it will be " ' the ' before more and better is not the 
article ' the,' but an old case of the demonstrative. Like the adverbial 
objective generally it expresses measure. In the first member it 
is about equal to "whatever amount," in the second, to "that 
amount." The (to whatever amount) more there are the (to that 
amount) better it will be. 

1 59. A hundred, a little, a few. — If we say " a hundred 
men," we have trouble to parse "a." It cannot modify men because 
men is plural ; but if hundred is a numeral adjective, then " a " cannot 
modify hundred. It comes all right if we supply of after hundred. In 
the older forms of English the numerals took after them a noun in the 
Possessive case, just as the same words do in Latin. Men in the 
Genitive, or Possessive, was the same as "of men" in meaning. But 
when the Genitive ending was lost, as it afterwards was, men became 
the same in form in the Genitive as in any other case. Men forgot 
that hundred was used as a noun and so the expression was left 
unchanged. In the same way explain " a few books," " a little 
money," " a dozen cows," etc. 

160. "Every ten DAYS."— Here e^;er?/ must be considered 
an adjective ' modifying ten days taken ' together ; or else it must be 
treated in the same way as "a hundred men," etc. 

16 1 . " That face of his."—" His " is one way of expressing 
I)OSsession and "of him" another, but "of his" is a confusion or 
blending of the two. It grew out of a blunder at first, no doubt, but 
it has been found to sound better to say " that face of his," than "that 
face of him," so it has been retained. In like manner, " a friend of 
mine," " that cane of yours," and " that gun of John's." It is useless to 
supply words after mine, yours, and John's. It can not be so 
explained. 



62 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

162. "One BY ONE." — Formerly this was written "by one 
by one," the phrase being repeated, as was often done, to indicate 
continuance or repetition of the thing done. For brevity the first' 
"by" was afterwards dropped, and so the expression came down to 
us. So "inch by inch," "little by little," "day by day," etc. 

1 63. " Had rather." — It is a great mistake to try to correct 
this expression by putting ' would' in the place of 'had.' It is perfectly 
good English as it is. 

In the sentence "I had rather go," had is used in the sense of 
hold, (in the past subjunctive") ; rather is the comparative of rathe, 
meaning early, soon ; and go is an infinitive. So the sentence can 
be construed, I should hold it better to go. Of course neither 
hold nor any other word can exactly take the place of had in this 
sentence. 

164. "Methinks" and "If you please." — Methinks is a 
relic of the old impersonal use of the verb. As we now say " It 
seems to me," so in older English we said, *'it thinks (to ) me." But 
the ' it ' was not always used before the impersonal verb, and the verb 
stood alone just as similar verbs do in Latin and other languages. 
In that case the indirect object might come before the verb. So it was 
written "me thinks," afterwards joined by a hyphen "me-thinks." 
So me is the Dative case, or Indirect Object. 

In the same way we must account for, " if you please," in which 
you by is no means the subject, but the indirect object of please. 
" If it please you," is the sense of it. 

In modern English we have come to use both of these verbs as 
personal. 

165. Than. — After than words and sometimes a clause may 
be omitted which must be supplied in order to make the construction 
clear. 

Notice the following : He loves John better than [he loves] me ; 
he is better than I supposed [he was (good)] ; he was more than a match 
for the boy [is, or would be]. 

She more than cried, she screamed ; that man was no other than 
the great Napoleon. These two sentences and others like them have 
doubtless grown out of a confusion of idioms ; and some of our best 
English scholars consider it impossible to supply the omitted words 
without doing violence to the English of the sentence. The student 
must not be dogmatic or presumptions in his efforts to supply the 
omitted words. The filling out of these two sentences below is a mere 
suggestion. She [did] more than [she would have done if she] cried, 
she screamed. That man was no other [person] than the great Napo- 
leon [was]. In the first of these it will be observed that there is a 
little want of harmony in the tenses. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 63 

166. As. — Like than, as is followed by a clause from which 
words may be omitted, and sometimes the clause may be omitted. He 
is as tall as I [am tall]. He treats me as [he would treat me] if I were 
a child. They look upon him as [they would look upon] a brother. 

But in the use of this idiom error arose and, as a result, we have 
sentences left with us which it seems impossible to complete ; as, " it 
was so cold as to freeze the mercury." 

167. "Than whom." — 'Than' is a subordinate conjunction 
and has nothing to do with the case of the pronoun which follows it. 
The case of a pronoun is determined by its use in the clause. We say 
(1) " He is taller than I," but (2) " He loves you better than me." In 
(1) J is the subject of am understood, while in (2) me is the object of 
loves understood. But with the best writers, when the relative pronoun 
follows immediately after than, the objective case alone is used, even 
when the structure of the clause following tha7i would seem to require 
the nominative. It is perfectly good English to say, " Shakspeare, 
than whom there is no greater ; " although it was at first a mistake — a 
blunder. Many would-be grammarians have insisted from this idiom 
that than is sometimes a preposition, which it never is. The only way 
to explain this use of whom is to say that it grew out of a blunder but 
has been made good English by the usage of the best writers, just as 
many other expressions which are now good English have grown out 
of the blunders of earlier periods of English. 




PART II. 

SENTENCE-MAKING 



-T^ 




SENTENCE-MAKING. 



CAPITALS AND POINTS. 



I. Begin every sentence with a capital letter. Ex. — Time is precious, 
Birds sing. 

Correct these. — 1. he plays a great deal. 2. it was a horse. 3. go 
' study your lesson. 4. wlio is the man ? 

II. Place a question mark (?) after every sentence used to ask a 
question. Ex. — Does he know ? Who says it ? 

Correct these. — 1. Who paid the debt. 2. Where will you go. 3. 
How often does he come. 4. Why did he do that. 

III. Place a period after sentences not used to ask a question. Ex. — 
Men are wicked. Be good. The wind blows. 

Correct these. — 1. He came yesterday ? 2. There are three here ; 
3. Beg him to stay, 4. The horse is a useful animal 

IV. Proper names and words derived from proper names begin with 
with capital letters. Ex. — James, Boston, Russia, Russian, Amer- 
ica, American, English. 

Correct these. — 1. I saw george to-day. 2. W^e went from boston 
to brooklyn. 3. The french are very polite. 4. The christians wor- 
ship god. 

V. The pronoun I and the interjection O must always be capitals. 
Correct these. — 1. Yes : i saw him. 2. o ! don't do that. 3. o ! 

what have i done ? 4. It was not i. 

Con-ect and give the reasons. 

1. he is good? 2. who was it. 3. they called james, 4. he hates 
the americans 5. John and i will go ? 6. i feel, o ! so happy ! 7. the 
english are brave 8. They left thomas at home 9. will you and 
jane walk with me. 10. the germans fought the french. 



68 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

EXERCISE IN REPRODUCTION. * 

Song of the Dove. 

( Tell in prose what is said in the poem, remembering all you 
have learned about capitals and points. ) 

There sitteth a dove so white and fair, 

All on the lily spray, 
And she listeneth how, to Jesus Christ, 

The little children pray. 

Lightly she spreads her friendly wings, 

And to heaven's gate hath sped ; 
And unto the Father in heaven she bears 

The prayers which the children have said. 

And back she comes from heaven's gate 

And brings — that dove so mild — 
From the Father in heaven, who hears her speak, 

A blessing for every child. 

Then, children, lift up a pious prayer, 

It hears whatever you say. 
That heavenly dove, so white and fair. 

That sits on the lily spray. 

— Sunny Hours of Childhood. ., 

* —Note to the Teacher.— Let it be the object of the student to 
bring out in good prose form every thought contained in the poem. 
Great care must he taken to cut loose entirely from the poetic construc- 
tion and order. In these reproductions let all the rules be put to prac- 
tical use as fast as they are learned. The poems given in this connexion 
have been selected with reference to their simplicity and also to their 
literary character. The reproduction of such poems in carefully writ- 
ten prose will be found far more beneficial to the student than attempts 
to write original compositions, or the mere correction of incorrect sen - 
tences, and will tend to cultivate literary taste. 

NOUNS. 

FORMATION OF PLURALS. 

VI. General Rule. — Nouns generally form their plurals by adding 
to the singular s or ( if the noun ends in letters that will not unite 
with s) es. Ex. — boy, boys ; box, boxes ; pen, pens. 

1. Nouns ending in y preceded by a consonant change y into i 
and add es. Ex. — fly, flies ; city, cities. But nouns ending in y pre- 
ceded by a vowel simply add s. Ex. — day, days, valley, valleys. 

2. (a) Some nouns ending in o preceeded by a consonant add 
es ; as, potato, negro, motto, calico, echo, hero, buffalo, mosquito, vol- 
cano, cargo, tornado, portico, grotto. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 69 

(b.) Others add s only ; as, canto, solo, piano, domino, halo, 
lasso, tyro, two, quarto, octavo, memento, proviso. 

( c.) When preceded by a vowel o takes s only ; as, folio, cameo, 
trio, &c. 

3. ( a ) Some nouns ending in / or fe change f to v and add es ; 
as, beef, calf, elf, half, knife, leaf, life, loaf, self, shelf, sheaf, thief, 
wharf, wife, wolf. 

(b.) Others simply adds; as, chief, fife, brief, grief, belief, 
dwarf, grief, kerchief, proof, reef, roof, safe, strife, waif. 

4. Letters, figures and signs form a plural by adding an apostro- 
phe ' ) and s ; as, 5 's, t 's, -|-'s. 

5. Learn the following plurals : 

(a.) Old Plurals : — child, children ; foot, feet ; goose, geese ; 
louse, lice ; man, men ; mouse, mice ; Mr.. Messrs. ; ox, oxen ; tooth, 
teeth ; woman, women. 

( b.) Foreign Nouns : — analysis, analyses ; antithesis, antitheses ; 
appendix, appendices, or appendixes ; axis, axes ; basis, bases ; beau, 
beaux ; cherub, cherubim, or cherubs ; crisis, crises ; datum., data ; 
ellipsis^ ellipses ; erratum, errata ; focus, foci ; genus, genera ; hypoth- 
esis, hypotheses ; ignis-fatuus, ignes-fatui ; magus, magi ; nebula, neb- 
ulae ; oasis, oases ; parenthesis, parentheses ; phenomenon, phenomena ; 
stratum, strata ; synopsis, synopses ; terminus, termini. 

( c.) Compound Nouns : — sons-in-law ( fathers-in-law, mothers- 
in-law, etc.,) aids-de-camp, attorneys-at-law, billets-doux, courts-mar- 
tial, hangers-on, knights-errant, men-of-war, court-yards, spoon-fuls, 
(and the like, ) Englishmen, fisher-men. Frenchmen, Normans, com- 
manders-in-chief, men-children, men-servants, women-smgers. 

Note. — These are not compounds of man : Ottomans, Germans, 
Mussulmans, Brahmans, talismans. 

6. The following nouns are used alike in the singular and the 
plural : — deer, sheep, hose, means, swine, wages, heathen. 

7. The following take two plurals different in meaning: — 
brother, brothers, or brethren ; genius, geniuses, or genii ; die, dies, or 
dice ; index, indices, or indexes ; penny, pennies, or pence ; shot, shots 
or shot. 

Correct these. — 1. I had three boxs. 3. Boston and Chicago are 
large citys. 3. These potatos are large. 4. She sang soloes. 5 
The bookes were large folioes. 6. The butcher killed six beefs. 7. 
The Indians have had many chieves. 8. We counted the 5s. 9. 
The child stood on both foots. 10. Mr. B. had two son-in-laws. 
11. We saw ten deers. 13. The ladys attend different churches. 
13. The negros live in the vallies. 14. In the two cantoes there 
are three hundred ts. 15. There are six calfs and ten sheeps. 16. 
The chimnies are higher than the rooves of the houses. 17. The 
Germen are braver than the Mussulmen. 18. The attorney-at-laws 
were talking of volcanos. 19. He writes billet-douxes and sings 
dittys. 20. The two Frenchmans caught three little mouses. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 



GENDER FORMS. 



VII. Some nouns in English have a form for the feminine different 
from the masculine. They are formed by different words, by dif- 
ferent compound forms, or by feminine terminations. At one time 
the most common method was by the termination — ess by which 
a good many nouns produced feminine forms. Very many of these 
have been dropped, ( as this is a borrowed ending,) and some have 
been retained ; as, princess, governess, countess. 

Note the following : — bachelor, maid ; buck, doe ; drake, 
duck ; earl, countess ; friar, nun ; gander, goose ; hart, roe ; lord, lady ; 
nephew, niece ; sir, madam ; stag, hind ; steer, heifer ; wizard, witch ; 
youth, damsel, or maiden ; abbott, abbess ; duke, duchess ; emperor, 
empress ; lad, lass ; master, mistress ; negro, negress : father, mother ; 
man, woman ; boy, girl ; uncle, aunt ; beau, belle ; executor, executrix ; 
hero, heroine; widower, widow; man servant, maid servant; cock 
sparrow, hen sparrow ; pea-cock, pea-hen. 

THE possessive CASE. 

VIII. The possessive case of nouns is formed by adding to the nomi- 
native an apostrophe ( ' ) and the letter s ; but if the plural ends in 
s add only the apostrophe. Ex. — sing, boy's, pi. boys' ; sing, ox's, 
pi. oxen's ; sing, countess's, pi. countesses'. 

Form the possessives singular and plural of these nouns : — hunter, 
buffalo, tyro, ally, attorney, calf, chief, child, beau, elephant, 
princess, hero, elf, dwarf, goose, fairy, thief, waif, mouse, fish, 
king, mosquito, deer, wife, ox, sheep, lion, cuckoo, monkey, wolf, 
woman. 

IX. In compound nouns, including nouns with appositive and 
phrase modifiers, the sign of the possessive is placed after the last 
word ; as, my father-in-law's house ; the King of England's throne ; 
William the Conqueror's son. Correct these. — 1. We saw the 
attorney 's-at-law's house. 2. Charlotte's the Empress maids of 
honor. 3. We went to our brother's-in-law. 

X. (a) Several nouns in the possessive indicating possession of the 
same thing take the sign after the last only ; as, Thomas and 
George's boat ; William and Mary's reign. 

( b ) But when they indicate possession of different things of the 
same name, the sign is used after each ; as, a Webster's and a 
Worcester's dictionary ; Robert's and Henry's hats. 

Correct these. — 1. It was Charlie's and Edward's boat. 2. I read 
Clay and Webster's speeches. 3. Queen Victoria and Emperor 
William's reign. 4. David and George's hats. 

XI. Do not in conversation or ordinary writing use the possessive 
of nouns denoting things without life. Ex.— not, " the tree's top, ' 
but, •' the top of the tree ; " not, " the stove's leg," hut, ** the leg 
of the stove." 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 71 

Correct these. — 1. The bed's head was turned to the east. 2. 
The window's glass was broken. 3. The lamp's burner is ruined- 
4. He struck the table's top. 
XII. Several possess! ves should not be used in succession when ' of ' 
with the objective case can take the place of some of them ; nor 
should ' of ' with the objective come often in succession when it can 
be relieved by the possessive. Ex.— not, "his wife's father's brother's 
home," but the home of his wife's father's brother; not "the 
home of the son of the brother of my friend " but the home of the 
son of my friend's brother. 

Correct these. — 1. My uncle's wife's brother is in town. 2. A 
son of the sister of a friend of my father. 3. His friend's father's 
house was burned. 

GENERAL EXERCISE, 

In this, but more especially in similar exercises which may fol- 
low it is not sufficient that the student correct the sentences and give 
the rules for such correction ; he should be able to point out exactly 
what word or form is wrong, what are its relations to other words 
which demand a different word or form, and with what words these 
relations are sustained. An exercise corrected in this intelligent fash- 
ion will prove exceedingly beneficial, while a mere parrot-like repeti- 
tion of the rule to which a case may be referred is of little benefit. Of 
course there are some simple cases in which it is quite sufficient to 
refer to the rule. 

Correct and give reasons. 

( a ) The King's of England's throne. 2. It blasted the tree's 
leaves. 3. He showed me Tennyson's the poet's residence. 4. 
Ferdinand's and Isabella's reign was prosperous. 5. A Ray's and 
Newcomb's algebra. 6. The king's son's wife's beauty is remark- 
able. 7. Henry's the Eighth's wives. 8. He broke the chair's leg. 
9. Mason's and Dixon's line. 10. We read the history of the life of 
the son of great king. 

( b ) 1. this is John or jame's hat. 2. he was louis the six- 
teenth's son's heir. 3. for your sake forgave i it in the sight of christ. 
4. no : i have neither william nor charle's book, 5. Socrates' sayings 
are recorded in plato and xenophon's works. 6. was notadam cain's 
and abel's father. 7. was jone's and taylor's store burned to the 
ground. 8. he says the french have been conquered by the germen, 
9. he says that america and england's homes are dear to the hearts of 
americans and englishmans : 10. Whence came milton's the poet's 
great thoughts. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 



EXERCISE IN REPRODUCTION. 



( Tell in prose what is said in this poem remembering all you 
have learned.) 

THE LODGING. 

Once with a landlord wondrous mild, 

The latest guest was I ; 
A golden apple was his sign, 

Hung from a branch on high. 

It was — the place where I turned in — ' 

The good old apple tree ; 
With sweetest food and sparkling dew 

He freely furnished me. 

There came into his house so green 

Many a light-winged guest, 
Who, springing free, held there a feast, 

And for me sang his best. 

I found a bed for sweet repose, 

A mat of green grass made ; 
My host himself threw over me 

His pleasant cooling shade. 

Now when I asked how much was due. 

He gently shook his head. — 
May he be blest, from root to top. 

Who gave me food and bed. 

PRONOUNS. 

XIII. Do not repeat the subject or the object in the form of a pro- 
noun except for emphasis. Faulty. — The boy he laughed, and the 
dog he barked. Corrected. — The boy laughed and the dog barked. 

Correct the Following. — 1. The baby he cried all night. 2. He 
who does all that he can do he does enough. 3. Anna, who was 
with me, she said it was so. 4. The names that I called you I 
am now sorry I spoke them. 

XIV. In speaking of several persons including the person 
speaking, 7andzi;e should come last. Faulty. — 1. I and you will 
go. 2. I, you and he are invited. Corrected. — 1. You and I 
will go. 2. You, he and I are invited. 

Correct the Following. — 1. I and my friend were out walking. 
2. We and the other boys had a pleasant time. 3. He gave this to 
me and you. 4. I and Charlie and you will go to the city. 

XV. Do not use the objective case for the nominative, or the nom- 
inative for the objective. Faulty. — 1. It is him. 2. Who did you 
see? Corrected. — 1. It is he. 2. Whom did you see ? 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 73 

Correct the Follovnng. — 1. It was her, not me. 2. Who did she 
give the book to ? 3. How did you find out whom it was ? 4. She 
said it must be him. 5. Between you and I, he is not to be trusted. 

XVI. Do not use pronouns in such a way that one cannot tell to what 
they refer. Eepeat the noun ; or, if telling what some one has 
said, give his exact words. Faulty. — The doctor told the lawyer 
that he was iU. Corrected. — The doctor said to the lawyer : ' ' You 
are ill ; " or the doctor said to the lawyer : " I am ill." 

Correct the Following. 1. Mr. Lee met Mr. Brown on the street 
and he told him that his son was very ill and that it was necessary 
that he should go to him at once. 2. Mrs. Blunt told Mrs. Tibbs 
that if she did not return soon her friend would send for her. 

XVII. A pronoun must not differ from its antecedent in number 
(person or gender). Faulty. — If anyone sees a Jjetter plan let 
^/^e??^ speak. 2. When you find errors let me know that I may 
correct it. Corrected. — If any one sees a better plan let him speak. 

2. When you find errors, let me know that I may correct them. 
Correct the Following. — 1. If anyone of the scholars think they 

know this lesson let them come forward and recite it. 2. The 
captain ordered that each one of the soldiers should bear their own 
burden. 3. Any man will find it hard to quit a habit when they 
have once given way to it. 

XVIII. Who refers to persons, which to things without life, to the 
lower animals, and to very small children ; that may be used instead 
of either who or which, and must be used when there is reference 
to both persons and things or the lower animals. Faulty. — 1. The 
man which I met knows you. 2. The dog whom I killed was mad. 

3. The animals and persons who were on board were drowned. 
Corrected. — The man whom I met knew you. 2. The dog which I 
killed was mad. 3. The animals and persons that were on board 
were drowned. 

Correct the Following. — 1. We saw a horse who was entirely 
blind. 2. The lady which left the train is very beautiful. 3. There 
were on the train a man and a little dog who seemed very good 
friends. 4. This is the young lion who roared so loud last night. 
5. We saw the horse and rider who were buried in one grave. 

XIX. It would be >vell iq observe as far as possible the following : 
1. Use who or ivhich, and not that, when the clause is not restric- 
tive. 2. Use that, and not who or which, after icho interogative, 
same, very, all, and adjectives expressing quality in the highest 
degree. Faulty. — 1. The moon that shines by night, is the earth's 
satellite. 2. Who is it who knows the facts? 3. This is the same 
man whom we saw. 4. John is the tallest man who is in the house. 
Corrected. — 1. The moon, which etc. 2. Who is it that knows the 
facts ? 3. This is the same man that we saw. 4. John is the tallest 
man that is in the house. 



4 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

Correct the Following. —Who who plans and works ever starves ? 
2. This is the tallest man who ever came to the town. 3. I heard 
all which he said. 4. Man, that is mortal, lives not long. 

XX. Two or more clauses referring to the same antecedent should 
have the same relative pronoun. Faulty. — This is the man whom 
we met and that gave us the papers. Corrected. — This is the man 
that we met and that gave us the papers. 

Correct the Following. — He that is honest, who gives close atten- 
tion to one business, and that works faithfully will succeed. 

XXI. The pronouns thou, thy, thee are said to be of the old or 
solemn style ; while you, your, etc., used for the singular are of the 
new, or common style. The two styles of the pronoun should not 
both be used in the same sentence to refer to the same person. 
Faulty. — 'Tis thy hat, for you have bought it. 2. He told you that 
thou shouldst keep quiet. Corrected. — 1. 'Tis your hat for you 
bought it. 2. He told thee that thou shouldst keep quiet. 

Correct the following. — 1. Do thy duty and then no one can 
blame you. 2. Your character is low indeed when no one will 
trust thee. 3. Pay me what thou owest and I shall forgive you. 

GENERAL EXERCISE. 

Correct the Following and Give Reason.— 1. The man he fled and 
the boy he was arrested. 2. I and John went. 3. It was her. 4. 
Henry saw the man make the purchases and told the merchant he 
was a rascal. 5. He did not pass any one without speaking to 
them. 6. This is the horse whom we rode. 7. He saw the panther 
and the young lady who stood faciug each other. 8. Thou hast 
done well for one of your age. 9. This dog he ate the bread. 10. I 
and he and you were school-mates. 11. He gave it to you and I. 
18. The tree fell across the log and it broke in two. 13. Everj- 
Bcholar is expected to get their own lesson. 14. The lady which 
we saw has gone home. 15. Thy hand is warm showing that your 
blood circulates freely. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 75 

EXERCISE IN REPRODUCTION. 

Tell what is in the poem, and take pains not to violate any rale 
that you have learned : 

ELDORADO. 

Gaily bedight, a gallant knight, 

In sunshine and in shadow. 
Had journeyed long, singing a song, 

In seach of Eldorado. 

But he grew old— this knight so bold — 

And o'er his heart a shadow 
Fell as he found no spot of ground 

That looked like Eldorado. 

And, as his strength failed him at length, 

He met a pilgrim shadow. — 
" Shadow," said he, " where can it be — 

This land of Edorado ? " 

'• Over the mountains of the Moon, 
Down the valley of the shadow — 

Ride, boldly ride," the shade replied, 
" If you seek for Eldorado ! " 

— E. A. POE. 

ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS. 

XXII. Use a /I before vowel sounds and a before consonant sounds^ 
Faulty. — 1. I have a apple. 2. He sold a?i horse. Corrected. — 1. I 
have an apple. 2. He sold a horse. 

Correct the following. — 1. He has such a ear for music. 2. Anna 
gave me an pear. 3. He will have a afternoon session. 

XXTII. Do not use double comparatives or double superlatives. 
Faulty. — 1. This apple is more riper than that. 2. This is the most 
delightfulest day I have spent. Corrected. — 1. This apple is riper 
than that. 2. This is the most delightful day I have spent. 

Correct the following. — 1. He is a more honester man. 2. These 
are the most unkindest words I have heard. 3. The man is some- 
what more ruder in his speech. 

XXIV. When the comparative degree is used in comparing different 
objects, the thing compared must be excluded from the class with 
which it is compared. Faulty. — 1. He is taller than any man. 

2. James is taller than any of his class. Corrected. — 1. He is taller 
than any other man. 2. James is taller than any one else of his 
class. *' 

Correct these. — 1. He is richer than any man in the world. 2. The 
. Washington monument is higher than any monument in America. 

3. Henry is taller than any boy of his age. 



76 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

XXV. In the use of the superlative degree the thing compared must 
be included in the class with which it is compared. Faulty. — ^1. 
Thomas is the tallest of all the rest of his class. 2. He is the tallest 
of all other men. Corrected — 1. Thomas is the tallest of all his class. 
2. He is the tallest of all men. 

Correct these. — 1. Jones is the richest of all his brothers. 2. The 
dog is the most intelligent of all other animals. 3. He felt this the 
most keenly of all others. 4. Washington was the noblest of the 
generals who served under him. 

XXVI. An adjective should not differ in number from the noun it 
modifies. Faulty. — 1. These news will grieve my father. 2. It 
is buried in this ashes. Corrected. — 1. This news will grieve my 
father. 2. It is buried in these ashes. 

Correct these. — 1. He appointed those committee. 2. These wire 
will be stretched soon. 3. I do not like these kind of men. 

XXVII. Do not use adverbs for adjectives or adjectives for ad verbs. 
Faulty. — 1. He writes rapid. 2. He arrived safely. Corrected. — 

1. He writes rapidly. 2. He arrived safe. 

Correct these. — 1. They worked faithful. 2. He looks sadly. 

2. She talks incessant. 

Note. — There are many verbs which admit after them either 
the ad jective or the adverb. The adjective has reference to the con- 
dition of the subject and modifies the subject ; as, he looks wild ; 
she stands /irwi. The adverb has reference to the action of the 
subject, and modifies the verb ; as, he looked wildly around ; she 
stands bravely at her post. 

XXVIII. In literary composition, round numbers and numbers 
less than one hundred should be spelled out ; but sums of money 
may be given in figures, when both dollars and cents are given. 

Faulty. — There were 71 students in the class. 

Corrected. — There were seventy-one students in the class. 

Correct these. — 1. There were 400 converts in this meeting, 
2. There were at first only 13 of these United States. 3. I gave 
him 7 books. 

XXIX. The "th" of the cardinal comes at the end of the entire 
number. Faulty. — He died in his sixtieth and fifth year. Cor- 
rected. — He died in his sixty-fifth year. 

Correct these. — 2. It was in the hundredth and twentieth year of 
the republic. 2. He is in his twentieth fifth year. 

XXX. When several words connected by conjunctions refer to 
different objects, the article ( a, an or the ) should be repeated ; but 
if they refer to the same object the article is not repeated 
except for emphasis. 

Explanation. — When we say ** the secretary and the treasurer,"' 
we designate two persons, one of whom is secretary and the other 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 77 

treasurer ; but hj *' the secretary and treasurer," we understand 
that there is but one man referred to, who holds both offices. By 
a "red and a white cow," we designate two cows, one red, the 
other white ; by "a red and white cow," we designate but one. 
Faulty. — 1. The farmer and lawyer were talking with each other. 
2. The husband and the father found himself in a predicament. 
Corrected. — 1. The farmer and the lawyer were talking with each 
other. 2. The husband and father found himself in a predica- 
ment. 

Correct these. — 1. A red and green apple were on the plate. 
2. The north and south pole. 3. An old and young man. 
XXXI. In choosing adjectives and adverbs be sure to select such as 
will not express more than is true, or simply repeat what has 
already been said, or have a general application without meaning 
anything in particular. 

Note. Too much attention can hardly be given to this matter. 
The question of modifiers is one of the most important with which 
we have to deal, and yet one that few people pause to consider. 
Much drill is needed along this line. 

Faulty. — 1. The material is quite heavy and weighty. 2. It 
was a tremendous dew. 3, We had a nice time. 4. He has 
splendid potatoes, Correctedf — 1. The material is quite heavy. 
2. It was a heavy dew. 3. We had a pleasant time. 4. He has 
large potatoes. 

Correct these. — 1. He is an estimable and good young man. 
2. It was a glorious peanut. 3. This is a nice day. 4. That 
was terribly funny. 5. She is frightfully quiet. 6. He is 
tedious and dull and uninteresting. 7. We had a nice dinner. 

XXXII. Do not use the indefinite article a or an after "kind of" 
or " sort of," or before nouns denoting a whole class. 

Faulty .—1. What kind of a bird is this? 2. He received the 
title of a duke. 3. This a sort of a puzzle. Corrected. — 1. What 
kind of bird is this? 2. He received the title of duke. 3. This 
is a sort of puzzle. 

Correct these. — 1. I had thought of some such a plan. 2. What 
sort a man is he? 3. It is a kind of a black-bird. 

XXXIII. We are no longer allowed to use two negatives in English 
to express a negative meaning. Faulty. — 1. I do not want 7io 
more bread, 2. He did not give me no change. Corrected. — 1. I 
do not want any more bread. 2. He did not give me any 
change. 

Correct these. — 1. He is not a judge of no man. 2. We did 
not see no one. 3. They never went nowhere. 4. She wouldn't 
talk about nothing. 

XXXIV. Do not use the pronoun them for the adjective those. 
Faulty. — Hand me them books. Corrected. — Hand tolQ those books. 



78 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

Correct these. — 1. He will do them things. 2. I saw them 
men yesterday. 3. Them apples are good. 

XXXV. Adverbs should not come between " to " and the other part 
of the infinitive. Faulty. — He tried to faithfully do his duty. 
Corrected. — He tried to do his duty faithfully. 

Correct these. — 1. He seems to quietly take what comes. 
2. The only plan is to simply let him alone. 

XXXVI. In the use of adverb modifiers let those of Time come firsts 
those of Place second, and those of Manner last. 

Faulty. — Married, at the residence of the brides 's father, by 
Rev. C. P. Foster, June 5th, 1885, Mr. B. D. Hale and Miss Flora 
E. North. 

Corrected. — Married, June 5th, 1885, at the residence of the 
bride 's father, by Rev. C. P. Foster, Mr. B. D. Hale and Miss Flora 
E. North. 

Correct these. — I. The balloon descended near the bridge at noon. 
2. He came in a carriage at evening to the stone house. 

XXXVII. In comparing one thing with another so and not as is 
used after a negative. 

Faulty. — He is not as tall as you. Corrected. — He is not so tall 
as you. 

Correct these. — 1. The applet we now have are not as good as 
those we had earlier. 2. The Atlantic is not as wide as the Pacific. 

GENERAL EXERCISE. 

Correct the following and give reasons. 

1. I saw 1000 people, there. 2. This is the one thousand eight 
hundreth and eighty-eighth year. 3. I have a gold and silver 
dollar. 4. This is a very still, quiet day. 5. I did not do nothing 
to nobody, g. This is a more sweeter peach than that. T. He is 
taller than any one of his family. 8. He was the wisest man that 
ever lived before his day. 9. These kind of people are always 
troublesome. 10. He works very faithful. 11. He will try to care- 
fully handle it. 12. He bought 96 sheep. 13. It is the hun- 
dredth and seventieth lesson. 14. The morning and evening 
shade fell upon the spot. 15. He is not capable of nothing. 
16. The infant was of an enormous size. 17. He is disposed to 
frankly admit his faults. 18. You are meaner than any person 
in the world. 19. He seems honestly to me. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 79 

EXERCISE IN REPRODUCTION. 

" INTRODUCTION." 

Piping down the valleys wild, 

Piping songs of pleasant glee, 
On a cloud I saw a child. 

And he laughing said to me : 

" Pipe a song about a lamb ; " 

So I piped with merry cheer. 
'* Piper, pipe that song again :" 

So I piped ; he wept to hear. 

" Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe, 

Sing thy songs of happy cheer : " 
So I sang the same again, 

While he w-ept with joy to hear. 

' ' Piper, sit thee down and write 

In a book, that all may read." — 
So he vanished from my sight ; 

And I plucked a hollow reed. 

And I made a rural pen, 

And I stained the water clear, 
And I wrote my happy songs 

Every child may joy to hear. 
— Blake. 



80 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 



PREPOSITIONS. 

XXXVIII. Great care should be taken to select the proper prep- 
osition to express a given relation. This can be done only by studying 
carefully the usage of good writers ; but the following list may be of 
some service in a few of the more common cases : 



absolve from 
abound in, with 
accommodate to, with 
accompanied by, with 
accordance with 
accuse of 
acquaint with 
acquit of 
adapted to, for 
advantag^e of, over 
agree with, to, in 
agreeable to 
alteration in 
ambitious of 
amuse with, at 
angry with, at 
anxious for, about 
appropriate to 
agree with, against 
arrive at, in, from 
ask of, for, after 
astonished at 
averse to 
believe in, on 
bestow upon 
capable of 
care for 
careful of, in 
celebrated for 
collide with 
combine with 
communicate to, with 
compare with, to 
comparison with, between 
complain of 
complaint of, against 
compliance witu 
comply with 
concur with, in 
condole with, for 
confide in, to 
conform to 
conformity with, to 
congratulate upon 
consist of, in 
consistent with 
contend, with, for, against 
contrary to 
convenient to, for 
conversant with, in 
danger of, from 
dated at, from 
defend from, against 
deference to. for, toward 
demand of, from 
depend upon 
derogatory to 
deserve of, from 
desirous of 
desist from 
die of, from, with, by 
differ from, with, about 
different from 
direct to, toward 
disagree with, to 
disagreeable to 



disappointed of, in 

discontented with 

discourage from 

disdain for 

disgusted with, at, by 

dissent from 

dissuade from 

distinguish by, for, from 

divide between, among 

engage in 

enjoin upon 

enrage with, at, against 

enrich by, with 

enter in, into, upon 

entertain by, with 

envious of, against 

equal to, with 

equally with 

equivalent to 

escape from, out of 

exasperated at, against 

exception to 

exhausted by, with 

exonerate from 

expert in, at 

expose to, for 

expostulate with 

exult over 

familiar to 

favorite of, with 

filled with 

forbear from 

foreign to, from 

found upon, in 

free from, with 

friendly to. with 

fruitful of, in 

glad of 

graduate at, in 

grapple with 

grateful to, for 

greedy of, after 

grieve at,Jor 

hatred to, of 

hinder from 

hold of, on 

hunger for, after 

impatient with, at, of, for 

impose upon 

impress upon, with, by 

incumbent upon 

independent of 

indulge in, with 

indulgent to, of 

infer from 

inferior to 

initiate into 

insensible to, of 

inseparable from 

insert in, into 

insinuate into, through, to 

interfere with, in, between 

intervene between 

introduce to 

introduce into 

intrude upon 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 



81 



reckon upon 

reconcile to. with 

recreant to 

regard for, to 

rejoice at, in 

regret for 

remonstrate with, against 

repent of 

repine at, for 

requisite to, for 

reproach with, for 

resemblance to 

reside at, in 

resolve upon 

respect for, to 

reward with, by, for 

secure of, from, against 

seize by, with 

share in of 

sick of, with 

similar to 

similarity to, between 

skilful in, at 

smile at, upon 

solicitous about, for 

strive with, against, for 

suitable to, for 

suited to, with 

surprised at, by, with 

stay at, with 

sympathize with, in 

sympathy with, for, between 

taste of, for 

thick with, 

thirst for, after 

threaten with, by 

translate, from, into 

unison with 

unworthy of 

ufce of, for 

variance with 

vexed with, at 

want of, with 

yearn after, for 

zealous for, in 



intrude into 

invest with 

involve in 

killed by 

killed with 

liberal of , in 

live at 

live in 

live on 

live upon 

long for, after 

love of, for, to 

martyr for, to 

mastery of, over 

matter with 

mindful of 

model after, on, in 

name after, from 

need of 

object to 

oblivious of 

obnoxious to 

observance of 

occasion for, of 

offended with, by, at 

opportunity of, for v 

originate in, from 

partial to, toward 

participate in 

patient of, with, under 

pendent from 

pleased with, at 

possessed of, with, by 

prefer to. before, abo^e 

preferable to 

preference to, over, for 

prejudice against 

present to, with 

prevail upon, with, over 

prevent from 

profitable to, for 

prohibit from 

proportion to 

provide with, for, against 

quarrel with about 

rail at, against 

Note to Teacher. — Let the student write out sentences illustrating the use 
of prepositions after those words (especially) which have more than one preposition 
after them. 



XXXIX. Do not use prepositions when they are not needed . 
Faulty. — 1. He came /or to have a talk. 2. They admitted of 
the fact. Corrected. — 1, He came to have a talk. 2. They 
admitted the fact. 

Correct these. — 1. I was leading of a horse. 2. By what states 
is Kentucky bounded by ? 3. Bless all for whom it is our duty to 
pray for. 4. You can tell by trying of it. 

XL. As a rule, do not use two or more prepositions with the 

same object, unless the prepositions stand together. Faulty. — I 

have great interest in, and hope of, the success of the undertaking. 

Corrected. — I have great interest in the undertaking and hope it 

will succeed. 

Correct these. — 1. He is sick of, and disgusted with, the business. 
2. He longs for, and strives after, money. 3. I know the treach- 
ery of, and am unwilling to put confidence in, that man. 



82 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

XLI. The preposition should be repeated after a conjunction where 
its omission would cause ambiguity. Faulty. — The bill was intended 
to keep the members from smoking and leaving their seats at 
pleasure. Correct. — The bill was intended to keep the members 
from smoking and from leaving their seats at pleasure. 

Correct these. — 1. The Sabbath was regarded as a day for rest 
from worldly occupation and holy joy. 2, His position was thd,t 
of secretary to the duke and page to the duchess. 

GENERAL EXERCISE. 

CORRECT THE FOLLOWING AND GIVE REASONS. 

1. He was averse from the plan. 2. He is not an easy person with 
whom to get acquainted with. 3. Trouble with, and excitement 
over this affair has exhausted him. 4. Let us consider the works 
of nature and art. 5. It was in compliance to my request. 6. He 
went to home. 7. To think of and to brood over troubles will not 
help matters. 8. He is in want for money. 9. I was followed 
with a coward. 10. He bears a close resemblance of his father. 
11. He lives at London, England. 12. I have need for a vaca- 
tion. 13. The child died with the croup. 14. He took a walk 
but was disappointed of it. 15. We did not go to Boston ; we 
were disappointed in the trip. 16. It is abhorrent from my 
instincts. 17. The man was accused with felony. 18. He argued 
differently to me. 19. He disagreed from the report. 20. He 
took exception from the remark. 21. We all take exceptions at 
hasty words. 22. He is independent from the society. 23. George 
is angry at me. 24. What is the matter of him ? 25. John is 
angry with what I said. 26. Do you object against him ? 

VERBS. 

XLII. A verb agrees with its subject in person and number. 
Faulty.— 1. I loves. 2. He love (Ind.) 3. They loves. 4. Thou 
loves. Corrected. — 1. I love. 2. He loves. 3. They love. 
4. Thou lovest. 

Correct these. — 1. You was at the theatre, was you? 2. He 
with his brothers have gone to the city. 4. The number of the 
enemy's horses were very great. 4. The ears of the rabbit is very 
large. 

XLIII. Two or more singular subjects connected by and generally 
take a plural verb. But when the several nouns are taken as indi- 
cating one idea, when they are different names of the same person, 
or when one is taken affirmatively and the other negatively, the verb 
is put in the singular. 

Faulty. — 1. James and George goes to school. 2. The boy and 
the girl was in the parlor. 3. The husband and father icere 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 83 

killed. 4. Passion, and not religion, govern his actions. Cor- 
rected. — 1. James and George go to school. 2. The boy and the 
girl were in the parlor. 3. The husband and father was killed. 
4. Passion, and not religion, governs his actions. 

Correct these. — 1. Industry and frugality leads to wealth. 
3. The boy and the man comes from the same place. 8. Wisdom 
and wealth procures esteem. 

XLIV. Two or more singular subjects connected by or or nor 
require that the verb should be in the singular. 

Faulty. — 1. Thomas or Robert have written. 2. Neither your 
father nor your mother were there. Corrected. — 1. Thomas or 
Robert has written. 2. Neither your father nor your mother was 
there. 

Correct these. — 1. Either ability or inclination were wanting. 
2. To lie or to steal are base. 3. Neither the man nor his son 
have been here. 

XLV. A collective noun when the individuals composing it are con- 
sidered separately may take a plural verb ; otherwise it takes the 
singular. Faidty. — 1. The jury was divided in its opinion. 2. The 
committee were discharged. Corrected. — 1. The jury were 
divided in their opinion. 2. The committee was discharged. 

Correct these. — 1. The herd were quietly passing up the valley. 
2. The party was divided in its politics. 3. The whole army 
were dismissed at once. 

XL VI. When several forms of the verb are connected by conjunc- 
tions, such parts of the verb as are not common to all should be 
given in full. Faidty. — Our country has not, and never will be 
conquered. Corrected. — Our country has not been, and never will 
be conquered. 

Correct these. — 1. He is, has, and always will be loved. 2. But 
you will bear it as you have so many things. 3. We imagine that 
what is always has, and always will be true. 4. I have not, and 
am not going to say it. 



84 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

EXERCISE IN REPRODUCTION 

THE LAST LEAF. 

I saw him once before, My grandmamma has said — 

As he passed by the door, Poor old lady, she is dead 

And again Long ago — 

And the pavement stones resound, That he had a Roman nose, 
As he totters o'er the ground And his cheek was like a rose 

With his cane. In the snow. 

They say that in his prime. But now his nose is thin, 

Ere the pruning knife of time And rests upon his chin 

Cut him down. Like a staff, 

Not a better man was found And a crook is in his back, 

By the crier on his round And a melancholy crack 

Through the town. In his laugh. 

But now he walks the streets, I know it is a sin 

And looks at all he meets For me to sit and grin 

Sad and wan, At him here ; 

And he shakes his feeble head. But the old three-cornered hat, 

That it seems as if he said, And the breeches, and all that, 

'* They are gone." Are so queer ! 

The mossy marbles rest - And if I should live to be 

On the lips that he has prest The last leaf upon the tree 

In their bloom, In the spring, 

And the names he loved to hear Let them smile, as I do now. 
Have been carved for many a year At the old forsaken bough 
»0n the tomb. Where I cling. 

— O. W. Holmes. 
XL VII. The verb he should not be used as principal verb and 
auxiliary at the same time. Faulty. — He is a great thinker and 
acknowledged as a leader. Corrected. — He is a great thinker and 
is acknowledged as a leader. 

Correct these. — 1. Mr. Jones was a successful business man and, 
for a long time, regarded as trustworthy. 2. Waste are those 
pleasant farms and the farmers forever departed. 
XLVIIL Do not use the perfect participle for the past indicative, or 
the past indicative for the perfect participle. Faulty. — 1. I seen 
it. 2. He has drove the carriage into the yard. Corrected. — 
1. I saw it. 2. He has driven the carriage into the yard. 

Correct these. — 1. I have not saw the man for years. 2. I had 
began it. 3. John had rode all day. 4. It was left to him and 
he chosen me. 5. He. come yesterday. 6. He had not ate his 
breakfast. 
XLIX. Do not confound the uses of may and can, lie and lay, sit 
and set, fly and flee. Faidty. — 1. Can I speak? 2. There he 



A YEAR INENGLISH. 85 

lays. 3. He had lain the burden down. 4. Come, set down. 

5. The criminal flew from justice. Corrected. — 1. May I speak? 

2. There he lies. 3. He had laid the burden down. 4. Come, 
sit down. 5. The criminal fled from justice. 

Correct these. — 1. Can I take the book with me? 2. He laid 
on the bed all day. 3. The corner-stone was lain by the Masons. 
4. I shall lay down. 5. The man has set there for an hour. 

6. The robber has flown from justice. 

L. Beware of forming the past tense and perfect participle of burst, 
blow, know, grow, throw, draw by adding ed to the present. 
Faulty. — 1. He bursted the ball. 2. The wind blowed hard. 

3. He has growed quite large. 4. I knowed it. 5. He drawed 
the water. Corrected. — 1. He burst the ball. 2. The wind 
blew hard. 3. He has grown quite large. 4. I knew it. 5. He 
drew the water. 

Corr^ect these. — 1. He throwed the apple at me. 2. The boiler 
is bursted. 3. He said he knowed it. 4. He had drawed out his 
sword. 
LI. Be careful in the use of shall and ivill, should and would. Aside 
from their use as the mere signs of the future shall and should are 
used when the action is controlled or desired by what is external 
to the subject, will and would when the subject controls or desu-es 
the action. If this fact is carefully borne in mind there will be 
little trouble in the use of these forms. The violation of this prin- 
ciple, in the use of all these words, may be fully illustrated by the 
old story of the Irishman. Faulty. — 1. The Irishman said : "I 
will drown, nobody shall help me." 2. The Irishman said he 
would drown, nobody should help him. Corrected. — 1. The Irish- 
man meant: "I shall drown, nobody will help me." 2. The 
Irishman meant to say that he should drown, nobody would help 
him. 

Correct these. — 1. I would be disappointed if you would not 
come. 2. I suppose I will leave the city this afternoon. 3. I 
would like much to see you. 4. We would be surprised if such a 
thing would happen. 5. He says he shall come back to-morrow. 

Note. — Our exercise takes in a wider range of sentences if we 
simply endeavor to distinguish between the various uses of these 
words as given in the following sentences : 1. I will see him. 
2. He would come into the room if he could. 3. He shall go 
with you. 4. They should be surprised if they found you, 
. 5. They should be ashamed to express such sentiments. 6. He 
w411 return. 7. He shall fail utterly in his purpose. 8. Shall I 
go? 9. Will you go? 10. Shall they go? 11. Should I go 
18. Would I go? 13. Should he go? 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 



CONJUNCTIONS. 



LII. There are certain words each of which takes after it a particu- 
lar conjunction ; as, either — or, neither — nor, not only — but also, 
both — and. When so used, the word and the conjunction should 
stand before the same part of speech or the same construction. 
Faulty.— 1. He not only gave me shelter but food also. 2. Neither 
was he tall nor slender. Corrected. — 1. He gave me not only 
shelter, but food also. 2. He was neither tall nor slender. 

Correct these. — 1 . There was neither anything strange nor inter- 
esting. 2. He both gave me his opinion and his reason for that 
opinion. 3. We neither knew the nature of our own ideas nor of 
the soul. 5. They will not only interest children but grown 
people also. 

LIII. In relative clauses the relative pronoun is the connective ; 
therefore the conjunction ' and ' is superfluous. Faulty. — This is a 
lovely scene and which no one could behold without emotion. 
Corrected. — This is a lovely scene which no one could behold with- 
out emotion . 

Correct these. — 1. She was a child of great promise and whom 
her parents loved fondly. 2. This is the gentleman from the 
South and of whom I spoke to you. 3. The rule rejecting and 
before relative clauses is a very important one and which is often 
neglected. 

LIV. Do not use how before the conjunction that, or instead of it. 
Faulty. — 1. He said how that he was tired. 2 He said how the 
wind was blowing as he came m. Corrected. — I. He said that 
he was tired. 2. He said that the wind was blowing as he came 
in. 

Correct these. — 1. He was forever telling us how that his aunt 
was a great singer. 2. He assured us how he would be our friend. 

LV. In comparing one thing with another than follows the compar- 
ative degree and other; but as follows the words so and as. Be 
careful not to substitute than for as or make one of these words 
answer for both. Faulty. — 1. She has improved faster as any 
girl I ever saw. 2. He is a little taller but not so large as John. 
3. He is not so large but a little taller than John. Corrected.-^- 

1. She has improved faster than any [other] girl I ever saw. 

2. He is a little taller than John, but not so large. 3. He is not 
so large as John, but a little taller. 

Correct these. — 1. This roate is as long but much more pleasant 
than the other. 2. He has heaped up more wealth as any man 
in the country. 3. Napoleon was an abler general, but not so 
good a man as Washington. 
LVI. The pronoun what should not be used for the conjunction 
that. Faulty. — I am not sure but what he will. Corrected. — lam 
not sure but that he will. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 87 

Correct these. He would not believe but what you did it pur- 
posely. 2. Who knows but what we shall live forever on this 
earth ? 

GENERAL EXERCISE. 

CORRECT THE FOLLOWING AND GIVE REASONS. 

1. He was singing of a song. 2. I have no care of nor interest in 
the boy. 3. George has upon himself the support of his father, 
who has long been a burthen to himself, and his little sister, a 
child of ten summers. 4. They loves him. 5. Mary and Susan 
studies the lesson. 6 John or Henry have lost their book. 7. I 
have not and never will be a slave to such a habit. 8. It is a 
large book and supposed to contain many good things. 9. I have 
wrote the letter. 10. Can I leave the room ? 11 . Your man has 
flown the country. 12. He says he knowed how it would be. 
13. Vegetation has growed very fast for several days. 14. He 
says he shall expect us to-morrow. 15. He said he would be 
forced to go. 16. We not only loved him but his family also. 
17. The case before us is a difl&cult one, and which will require 
much study to understand. 18. They said how the road was long 
and rough. 19. That mountain is higher but not so steep as this. 
20. He would not say but what he was guilty. 

EXERCISE IN REPRODUCTION. 

THE CRICKET. 

Beneath the rose 's mossy stem, 

A Cricket lay concealed, 
And saw a brilliant Butterfly, 

Sport gaily o 'er the field. 

With gold and purple spangled o 'er, 

And pure, ethereal blue, 
It sipped the nectar from each flower 

And bathed in fragrant dew. 

At last the cricket, sad, exclaimed, — 

How different is my lot ; 
To dull obscurity consigned, 

Upon this lonely spot ! 

No lovely hues upon me shine. 

No figure can I boast. 
Nor is one useful talent mine, 

That Nature 's lent to most. 

Whilst musing thus arrived a troup ' 

Of lively, playful boys. 
Who soon pursued the gaudy fly, 

With childish glee and noise. 



88 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 



A prisoner, soon, in eager haste, 

The hapless insect 's torn : 
The cricket, in her shelter placed, 

Its luckless fate did mourn. 

Alas, — she said I now preceive 

'Twas folly to repine, 
O, may the tranquil shades of life, 

Henceforth be ever mine. 

Too dearly bought those brilliant hues. 

Those wings in light unfurled, 
I now have learned it costs too dear 

To shine in this sad world ! 

— Sunny Hours of Childhood. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

ABBREVIATIONS . 

LVII. Every abbreviation is followed by a period and most of them 
begin with a capital. Learn the list. 



A. B. Bachelor of Arts 
acct. account 

A. D. In the ypar of our Lord 
Ala. Alabama 

A. M. Master of Arts 
Anon. Anonymous 
Ans. answer 

Ark. Arkansas 
Aug. August 
bbl. barrel 

B. C. Before Christ 
Bro. brother 

Cal. California 
Capt. captain 

C. E. civil engineer 
Chap, chapter 

Co. company 

C. O. D. collect on delivery 
Col. colonel 

Colo. Colorado 

Conn. Connecticut 

Cr. credit 

ct. cent 

cwt. a hundred weight 

D. D. Doctor of Divinity 
Dec. December 

Del. Delaware 
do. ditto, the same 
Dr. doctor, or debtor 

D. V. God willing 

E. East 

e. g. tpr example 
Eng. England 
Esq. Esquire 
etc. and so forth 



Feb. February 

Fla. Florida * 

Ga. Georgia 

gal. gallons 

Gen. general 

hhd. hogshead 

Hon. honorable 

la. Iowa 

id. the same 

i. e. that is 

111. Illinois 

lud. Indiana 

Jan. January 

J. P. justice of the peace • 

Jr. junior 

Kans. Kansas 

Ky. Kentucky 

La. Louisiana 

lb. pound ; lbs. pounds 

Lieut. Lieutenant 

LL. D. Doctor of Laws 

Maj. Major 

Mass. Massachusetts 

M. C. Member of Congress 

M. D. Doctor of Medicine 

Md. Maryland 

Me. Maine 

Messrs. Gentlemen ; Sirs. 

Mich. Michigan 

Minn. Minnesota 

Miss. Mississippi 

Mme. Madam 

Mo. Missouri 

M. P. Member of Parliament. 

Mr. Mister 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 



Mrs. Mistress 

MS. Manuscript 

MSS. Manuscripts 

N. North 

N. B. Note well ; take notice 

N. C. North Carolina 

Neb. Nebraska 

Nev. Nevada 

N. H. New Hampshire 

N. J. New Jersey 

No. Number 

Nov. November 

N. S. New Style 

N. Y. New York 

O. Ohio 

Oct. October 

Oreg. Oregon 

O. S. Old Style 

oz. ounce 

p. page ; pp. pages 

Pa. Pennsylvania 

Ph. D. Doctor of Philosophy 

P. M. Afternoon 

P. O. Postoffice 

Pres. President 

Prof. Professor 



P. S. Postscript 

qt. qts. quart ; quarts 

Reed. Received 

Rev. Reverend 

R. I. Rhode Island 

R. R. Railroad 

S. C. South Carolina 

Sec. Secretary. 

Sen. Senator ; Senior 

Sept. September 

St. Saint ; Street 

Supt. Superintendent 

Tenn. Tennessee 

Tex. Texas 

U. S. United States 

U. S, A. United States of 

America; United States 

Army 
Va. Virginia 
viz. namely 
Vt. Vermont 
W. West 
W. I. West Indies 
Wis. Wisconsin 
W. Va. West Virginia 
yd. yard ; yds. yards 



MODIFIERS, COMPLEX SENTENCES, ETC. 

LVIII. Modifiers of every description, whether word, phrase, or 
clause, should come as close as possible to the words they modify, 
that there may be no mistake as to what they do modify. 

Note. — Much attention should be paid to not and only as they can be made to 
modify so many words in the sentence. 

Faulty. — 1. (Noun) John gave it to his father, a boy of twelve 
years. 2. ( Adjective ) He desired black gentlemen's gloves. 3. 
(Adverb) He could only live in excitement. 4. (Phrase) 
Wanted : A young man to take charge of some horses of a religious 
turn of mind. 5. (Clause) Solomon, was the son of David, who 
built the temple. 

Corrected. — 1. John, a boy of twelve years, gave it to his 
father. 2. He desired gentlemen's black gloves. 3. He could 
live in excitement only. 4. Wanted : A young man of a religious 
turn of mind to take charge of some horses. 5. Solomon, who 
built the temple, was the son of David. 

Correct these. — 1. I only saw him once. 2. It is a general time 
of good feeling. 3. A lecture was given on theatre-going at 
eleven o'clock. 4. The spider caught the fly, a sly creature. 5. 
The boy has a new pair of boots. 6. The boy was shot in the arm 
from Boston. 7. The French nearly lost five thousand men. 8. 
Yesterday Jones shot a panther a daring sportsman. 9. A boy 
was riding a gray horse with blue coat and trousers. 10. The 



90 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

farmer sent for the doctor, who had broken his arm. 11. Do not in 
the same breath mention Arnold and Washington the betrayer of 
his country. 12. A woman is a nuisance in any community with 
a long tongue. 13. We saw a man with one eye named Robert 
Welch. 14. The figs were in five little wooden boxes which we 
ate. 15. Gentlemen, here is a horse belonging to a merchant with 
three white feet. 
LIX. Do not string modifying clauses together to such an extent as 
to cause confusion. 

Faulty. — Mr. Johnson had some trouble with a farmer, who 
brought suit before a justice of the peace, who decided in favor of 
the farmer, who seemed much elated over his success. 

Corrected. — Mr. Johnson had some trouble with a farmer, who 
brought suit before a justice of the peace. The case was decided in 
favor of the farmer, who seemed much elated over his success. 

Correct this. — Much enthusiasm was shown in the convention 
when Mr. Halley nominated Mr. Blackmore, who had already 
served in the office one year when he allowed his name to come 
before this convention, which was to nominate him upon a plat- 
form which he could heartily endorse. 

LX. The members of compound sentences should have close con- 
nection in thought and not be merely strung together by ands. 

Faulty. — 1. The Germans conquered the French, and St. Louis 
is on the bank of the Mississippi river. 2. He came to the city 
and visited his aunt, and father came while he was here, and we 
all like him very much. 

Corrected. — 1. The Germans conquered the French. St. Louis 
is on the bank of the Mississippi river. 2. He came to the city and 
visited his aunt. Father came while he was here. We all like 
him very much. 

Connect this. — John went down the street, and the druggist 
called him and he went over to see what the druggist wanted, and 
when he got there the sheriff was waiting for him, and so they 
took John into court, and the justice asked him a few questions 
and then fined him, and the sheriff took John to prison, as he could 
not pay the fine. 

LXI. Where there are several coordinate clauses connected by con- 
junctions, care must be taken not to mix the subjects and predicates 
of these clauses. Faulty. — The book should have been returned 
sooner but had not finisned it. Corrected. — The book should have 
been returned sooner but I had not finished [ reading ] it. 

Correct these. — 1. The farmer told the lawyer that his bull had 
killed the farmer's ox and would hold him responsible for it. 2. 
I shall see that the cooks prepare the cakes and are served up hoc 
at the table. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 91 

LXII. It is perhaps better to use as seldom as possible the expres- 
sions this and that, former and latter, the one and the other to 
refer to things already mentioned, as it is almost sure to cause the 
reader the trouble of looking back to see which is this and which 
is that, etc. Better repeat the words time and again. Faulty. — 
111- temper and pride were qualities of his nature which were 
abnormally developed at an early age and accompanied him through 
life, destroying all peace and happiness. The latter kept him from 
forming many close attachments ; the former served to break up 
those that were formed. That gave the rein to the basest impulses, 
while this suppressed and smothered all the finer emotions of his 
nature. Corrected. — Put ill-temper in the place of former and 
that, pride in the place of latter and this and you will save the 
reader the trouble of looking back to find out the position of the 
words. 

CLIMAX. 

LXIII. To secure the greatest strength to a sentence, a series of 
words, phrases, or clauses may be so arranged that what is of least 
importance may come first, that of next least importance second, 
and so on till that of highest importance comes last. This arrange- 
ment is called Climax. Without Climax. — Horses, cattle, hogs 
and sheep were swept away by the flood. With Climax. — Sheep, 
hogs, cattle and horses were swept away by the flood. 

The order of time may take the place of the order of importance ; 
as, spring, summer, autumn, and winter. 

That which is naturally of least importance may be of greatest 
importance in a series, especially in matter of minuteness ; as, he 
examined carefully every paragraph, sentence, phrase, word, and 
syllable. 

Arrange in the order of climax. — 1. A man's greatness, glory, 
and power depend on essential qualities. 2. He lost character, 
friends, and home. 3. We saw a panther, a tiger, a wolf, and a 
monkey. He slept for weeks, days, and hours at a time. 5. The 
ponderous machinery of the French empire was flying asunder, 
rending, crushing, stunning thousands. 6. To crucify a Roman 
citizen ! What shall I call it ? To scourge him is a crime ; to kill 
him almost parricide ; to put him in chains a misdeed. 7. A 
thought from his brain, a word from his lips might affect their 
destinies, might change their opinions, might influence their pas- 
sions, might cause them to think. 

GENERAL EXERCISE. 

Correct the following and give reasons : — 1. This gentleman is 
an a. m. of the state university at Charlottsville, va.. 2. We saw 
a bird flying over the mountains with a long neck. 3. This is the 
man whose father came from Boston where he was a merchant 



92 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

when he was a boy, which was some fifty years ago. 4. Cleveland 
is a beautiful city and George Washington was president of the 
United States. 5. J. and M. were great statesman whose influence 
was felt throughout the length and breadth of the land, the former 
having been sixteen years in the senate, the latter ten years in the 
house and twelve in the senate. 6. What were eternity, death, 
life to such a man? 7. Mess. Barnes and Jones of Louisville, K. 
Y., will forward to you nineteen Lbs. of grass seed and fifty Bu. 
of oats. 8. The winds came from the north-lands which had 
been blowing all night. 9. I believe this company has the fullest 
line of any that have come into our country, which has hitherto 
been so destitute of those things which give comfort and pleasure 
to a life that is so cut off from the great world. 10. He came home 
before I got back from school and when I reach the station he was 
waiting for me and Mr. Hinson was with him and we went up home 
together and we just had a delightful time. 11. He spent his old 
age in poverty and misery, his youth in luxury and idleness, and 
his manhood in feasting and dissipation. 

EXERCISE IN REPRODUCTION. 

THE DAFFODILS. 

I wandered lonely as a cloud 
That floats on high o'er vales and hills. 

When all at once I saw a crowd. 
A host, of golden daffodils ; 

Beside the lake, beneath the trees, 

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. 

Continuous as the stars that shine 

And twinkle on the milky way, 
They stretched in never ending line 

Along the margin of a bay ; 
Ten thousand saw I at a glance, 
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. 

The waves beside them danced ; but they 

Outdid the sparkling waves in glee : 
A poet could not but be gay. 

In such a jocund company : 
I gazed — and gazed — but little thought 
What wealth the show to me had brought : 
For oft, when on my couch I lie 

In vacant or in pensive mood, 
They flash upon that inward eye 

Which is the bliss of solitude ; 

And then my heart with pleasure fills. 

And dances with the daffodils, 

— Wordsworth. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

LETTER WRITING. 



93 



LXIV. In writing letters the following points are to be considered : 
1. The Heading; 2. The Address ; 3. The Salutation ; 4. The Body 
of the Letter ; 5. The Close ; 6. The Signature ; 7. The Superscrip- 
tion. 



Sedalia, Mo., Aug. 9, 1887. 
Prof. T. B. Johnson, 

Clarksville, Tenn. 

Dear Sir,— 



In your letter of the 



3d inst. 



Very truly, 

J. N. Greene. 



STAMP. 



Prof. T. B. Johnson, 

Clarkesville, 

Tenn. 



94 A YEAR IN ENiJIJSH. 

Instruction. — (a ) The heading consists of the name of the place 
and the date. The name of the place should be the postoffice from 
which the letter is written and the name of the state. If it be only a 
small town, the county should be added ; as, Ashland, Boone Co., Mo. 
If it be a large city the street and number must be added ; as, 742 
Broadway, New York. The date should always be the true time 
of the writing. 

( b ) The address should contain the name of the person to whom 
the letter is written, and the name of his postoffice and state, subject 
to the same variations as in the heading. In familiar letters the address 
is often omitted. 

( c) The salutation varies with the degree of familiarity or affec- 
tion to be expressed, from the formal "Sir" or "Madam" to the 
affectionate " My Dearest Sister." 

(d) The body, of course, contains what is to be said. 

(e) The close, like the salutation, varies with the degree of 
familiarity. It may occupy two lines instead of one ; as, 

Most faithfully. 

Your friend, 
(/) The signature must be the true name of the writer. 
( g ) The superscription is written on the envelope, beginning a 
short distance from the left hand end and about half way from the top 
to the bottom. It contains the name of the person to whom the letter 
is written, and of his postoffice and state, subject to the same variations 
as the address. Note these examples : 

J. T. Bond, Eldredge & Brother, 

Fayette ville, 17 North Seventh St., 

Washington Co., Philadelphia, 

Ark. Penn. 

( h ) The greatest care should be taken to have all the various 
items exactly correct. The letter should be folded to fit the envelope 
and folded but once. Everythmg, especially the superscription, should 
be written in a legible hand, without blot and without flourishes. 



DIRECT AND INDIRECT QUOTATIONS. 

LXV. If you repeat what another says in his exact words, it is called 
Direct Quotation, and is enclosed in quotation marks (" ") ; as, 
Mr. Brown said : "I shall come as soon as I have finished my 
work." 

If you repeat it so as to give his exact meaning in your own 
words, it is called Indirect Quotation, and no quotation marks are 
used ; as, Mr. Brown said he would come as soon as he had finished 
his work. 

Notice that in this you have changed I into he, my into his, shall 
into would, and have into had. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 95 

Notice still greater changes in this. — 

Direct : — Mr. Brown said : "I shall explain my position to him 
when I have the opportunity to leave my work, and he has the 
leisure to hear me." 

Indirect : — Mr. Brown said that he would explain his position to 
you when he had ( should have ) the opportunity to leave his work 
and you had the leisure to hear him. 

Sometimes little or no change takes place ; as, Mr. B. said : 
" Some men might live for ever and the world would be none the 
better for their existence." The indirect quotation would make no 
change. 

Change the following from direct to indirect or from indirect to 
direct. — 1. He said that he would come at the appointed time and 
that his friend would come with him. 2. She said to him : You 
have done very well for fifteen years without your sister why could 
you not do as well now ? 3. She said to him : Don't laugh. I 
cast your nativity last night and I know you have no cause to 
laugh. A great danger hangs over you and a deep temptation. 4. 
He said that he must say it for himself that he bears, io his own 
opinion at least, not a vulgar point about him. 5. Halbert said : 
'• Sir Knight, I have twice given you good morning to which the 
absence of your mind hath, I presume, prevented you from yield- 
ing attention." 



ORDER OF WORDS IN ENGLISH. 



If we let S. stand for subject, P. for predicate, S. M. for subject 
modifiers, and P. M. for predicate modifiers, the following will repre- 
sent the order of words in an English sentence. 



.,) 



p p . r Appos. Noun 1 r Nouns "^ 

^"•^^J- ' 1, Clause j L Clauses, j 



But for the sake of emphasis, or for convenience this order may be 
changed, as is the case with perhaps more than half of the sentences 
found in books. The personal part of the verb comes before the sub- 
ject ( 1 ) in interrogative sentences in which no interrogative word is 
used ; (2 ) when 'it,' ' there,' or ' here ' is used merely to introduce the 
sentence. 

Emphasis. — A word is frequently made emphatic, by being 

jjlaced in a position that is emphatic because out of the natural 

order. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

Ex. — Observe the following sentences, tell what part of the sen- 
tence is out of its natural order, and tell what the effect is. 

1. Has he come? 2. Dark was the day. 3. There was a 
pause. 4. Gone are those happy days, and dead are the friends 
that \\ e loved. 5. Flashed all their sabres bare. 6. Loud blew 
the blast. 7. Silver and gold have I none. 8. Dares he deride 
me thus? 9. Swiftly the arrow flew. 10. Back from the jaws 
of death, rode the six hundred. 

Change the order of words in the following sentences in various 
ways and note the effect. 

1. She does not sleep. 2. The soldier cried " stop." 3. The 
contest was long and doubtful. 4. The hopes of my youth are 
fled. 5. He will never again come to me. 6. Immortal Alfred 
sat on such a stool. 



PARAGAPHING. 



LXVI. A number of sentences closely linked together in developing 
one thought or phase of a subject are grouped together in what is 
known as a Paragraph. 

Great care and considerable judgment are needed in paragraph- 
ing. 

Observe the following points : 1. Wherever the attention is 
directed to a new phase of the subject or a new set of circum- 
stances a new paragraph should begin. 2. When by this process 
the paragraphs are too long they may be divided into two or more. 
3. Every paragraph should begin from one-half to one inch to 
the right of the marginal line on the left. 4. Very short para- 
graphs do not look well. 

example. 

Ruskin has always been an extremist in everything, and he 
went so far as to denounce Raphael's ' ' Charge to Peter " on the 
grounds that the Apostles are not dressed as men of that time and 
place would have been when going out fishing. He held to an 
almost brutal realism in everything, and preached his doctrine 
whether men would hear or whether they would forbear. 

He followed the " Modern Painters" in due time by his " Seven 
Lamps of Architecture " and his '* Stones of Venice." They were 
masterpieces of eloquent description and rhetoric. No such vivid 
writing had been seen for many a day, and no such zeal and 
earnestness. The wealth of gorgeous imagery was dazzling ; the 
declamation imparted to it the eloquence of an earlier day ; and 
the lofty thought and moral purpose were peculiarly the author's 
own. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 97 

As he grew older he grew dogmatic and crotchety in the 
extreme. He imitated Carlyle in his scoldings, and indeed was 
much influenced by Carlyle in many ways. He has always been 
an impractical theorist, and in these latter years he has put forth 
a thousand foolish and subversive vagaries. People have not taken 
him quite seriously for some time. 

Exercise. — Combine the following into paragraphs : 

1. " The group was composed of several persons of note. The personal 
appearance of each one was somewhat peculiar. A description of 
these peculiarities will be given in another place. These indi- 
viduals had come from widely different parts of the country. One 
was from Boston. Another hailed from the southern part of Texas. 
A third member had come all the way from Oregon. The others 
came from intermediate points, but still, points widely separated. 
The object of their coming together, though not fully understood 
by all the group, was, nevertheless, dimly outlined in the mind of 
each of them. There was at least enough of general understand- 
ing and of common interest to bring them together from great 
distances." 

2. " She unrolled and smoothed out the notes with a sense of thank- 
fulness and satisfaction. They were far from rich, and this money, 
hardly and honorably won, typified to her, comforts, necessaries, 
and charities. When she arose from the table, she carried the 
money into the pantry, and put it into one of the celery glasses on 
the second shelf. She always had a feeling of added responsibility 
when she had money in charge in George's absence. She was a 
brisk, pretty little body, with a deal of vim about her, and it was 
not long before the dishes were washed and the room tidied. Then 
she went out to find the half-dozen white Leghorns. Coming back, 
she stopped to see how matters were progressing in the garden. The 
beans and peas and lettuce were doing finely, and the tomato 
plants began to look quite sturdy, but she noticed with vexation, 
that the currant worms were destroying the bushes. "I must 
get," she thought, " some helebone to-day." When she came into 
the house again, she heard Eddy and Larry awake up stairs, and 
went up to help the rosy, healthy little fellows dress, who soon 
came down to their breakfast of bread and milk, after which they 
went out into the garden to play." 



98 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

CAPITAL LETTERS. 



LXVII. Begin with a capital letter : 

1. The first word in every sentence ; 

2. All proper names and words derived from them ; as, George, 
America, American, French ; 

3. Every line of poetry ; 

4. All names of God ; as, Jehovah, Almighty, Redeemer ; 

5. Bible and words used for Bible, or for any part of it ; as, 
Scriptures, Holy Writ, Word, Revelations, Exodus ; 

6. Names of months, and days of the week ; as, Wednesday, June ; 

7. Names of streets ; as, Walnut St., Broadway ; 

8. The words north, south, east, west, when applied to a section of 
country ; as, the East is against the West ; 

9. Names of political parties and religious denominations ; as. 
Democrat, Republican, Methodist, Presbyterian ; 

10. Titles of honor and office when used in connection w^ith any 
person's name : as, Judge Black, President Cleveland ; 

11. Names of important historical events ;as, American Revolution, 
the Reformation ; 

12. Names of things personified ; as, The Sun replied ; "I," said 
the Tree ; 

13. All the important words in writing the titles of books, papers, 
magazines, literary articles, etc. ; as, '• Pilgrim's Progress " ; "Atlantic 
Monthly " ; " The Highways of Literature ; " 

14. Every direct quotation formally introduced ; as, Mr. Thompson 
said : '' We cannot longer delay ; " 

15. In letters, the first and the principal word in the Salutation, the 
first word in the Body, and the first word of each line of the Close ; 
[ See Letter Writing. ] 

16. The first word of phrases and clauses separately numbered ; as, 
We shall consider, 1. Kinds of sentences ; 2. Rules fur constructing 
sentences ; 

17. The first word in a clause introduced by Resolved, Be it enacted, 
etc ; as. Resolved : That we citizens, etc. 

18. The pronoun I and the interjection O should always be capitals. 

19. Begin with a capital no word or phrase unless you can give 
a good reason for so doing. 

Place capitals where they belong in these sentences and give reasons : 
1. we saw p'ofessor jones at the depot. 2. the gentleman is a pres- 
byterian and a whig. 3. he spoke of our civil war and compared 
it to the war of the roses. 4. the east will furnish the manufactured 
goods and the west the agricultural products. 5. and freedom 
shrieked when kosciusko fell. 6. His address is 274 chestnut avenue. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 99 

7. he is reading the courier journal but he has a copy of the century 
also. 8. the letter was dated from boston, Wednesday, jan. 5th. 
9. em'erson says : " every soul is a celestial venus to every other 
soul." 10. Our savior said: "search the scriptures." 11. the 
english language is spoken by the american people. 12. the con- 
ditions were these : 1. that all things should be held in common ; 
2. that each should pay his part of the expense; 3, that the gains 
should be divided equally. 13. Be it enacted by this assenibly : 
that the, etc. 

14. and out again i curve and flow 

to join the brimming river ; 
for men may come and men may go, 

but i go on for ever. 



PUNCTUATION, 



LXVIII. We shall notice the following marks of punctuation : 
Period ( . ; ; Colon ( : ) ; Semi-colon ( ; ) ; Comma ( , ) ; Dash ( — ) ; 
Quotation marks ("• ") ; Apostrophe (') ; Hyi)hen(-) ; Interro- 
gation point (?) Exclamation point ( ! ) : Parenthesis, ( j. 

PERIOD. 

1. Place a period at the end of every declarative or imperative 
sentence ; as, He goes. Bring the book. 

2. A period is used after every abbreviation ; but this does not 
take the place of other punctuation, except that of the period at the 
end of a sentence ; as, Who took A. B. ? Fulton, Mo., Jan. 9, 1887. 

3. A period is placed before decimals ; as, 3.024; 1.35. 

4. A period is placed after Eoman numerals, except in paging ; 
as, Henry VIII. ; Chap. IV. 

5. Periods are used to indicate the omission of words or sen- 
tences in a quotation ; as, " Look and judge . . . for yourself. ' 

Place periods in these. — 1. He would have taken A M if he had 
not left school 2. Henry VI was noble. 3. Rev A T McVaine 
D D 4. He said : " During my visit to the city I heard These 
things have made you sad " 

COLON. 

1. When the members of a compound sentence contain clauses 
or phrases that are separated by semi-colons, the members them- 
selves are separated from each other by a colon ; as, There seems 
to have been an Indian path ; for this was the ordinary route of the 
Mohawk and Oneida war parties : but the path was narrow, broken 
full of gullies and pit falls, crossed by streams ; and in one place 
it was interrupted by a lake which they passed on rafts. 



100 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

2. The colon is placed after the words thus, the following, as 
follows, this and these, when they refer to some examples given 
or the enumeration of particulars, thus : He spoke as follows : 
" Gentlemen," &c. The Dative case is illustrated in the following : 
he gave me the book ; show it me. 

3. The colon precedes a direct quotation of much length ; as 
Mr. Gates then remarked : "My dear madam I did not intend," &c. 

Place colons and periods. — 1. The orator of the occasion having 
been introduced said " I am impressed wif,h the surroundings " 2. 
The committee was composed of the following gentlemen Rev J G 
Colts D D, Hon A P Currin and Prof J M Stars Ph D 3. The period 
denotes a full pause, thus "She came to see us" 

SEMI-COLON. 

1. The members of a compound sentence, if they are lengthy, 
or contain parts that are separated by commas, take between them 
a semi-colon, unless a colon is required ; as, " When I say an ill- 
natured thing, 'tis out of pure good-humor ; and I take it for granted 
they deal exactly in the same manner with me." 

2. When a colon is placed before an enumeration of particulars, 
the particulars themselves if they consist of more than one or two 
words are separated from each other by semi-colons ; as, They 
bound themselves to maintain these three things : Absolute secrecy 
in the matter ; Entire confidence in their associates ; Undying 
fidelity to each other. 

3. The semi-colon is used before as, namely, to-wit, viz., intro 
ducing examples, illustrations, &c., thus: A noun is a name ; as 
tree, boy, dog. 

Place semi-colons, colons and periods. — 1. The man who is 
always frank and jovial, in speech and conduct, toward all who 
gives outward evidence of a kindly and sympathetic disposition 
and who is ever constant and faithful to his friends is sure to have 
plenty of them and friends who are worth possessing are not likely 
to desert such a one, if his inward nature be in accord with his 
outward expression 2. The plural of nouns is formed by adding 
to the singular s or es as boy, boys box, boxes 3. The points to 
be considered are these The needs of the case the means of securing 
them and the appointing of the committees 

DASH. 

1 . The dash is used when the sentence is suddenly- broken off or 
abruptly changed ; as, He came into the room, exclaiming : " What 
on earth has '' The sentence was never finished. 

2. The dash is used to show the omission of the whole or a part 
of a word, or of the numbers between two given numbers ; as, 
Mr. lives at R ; The numbers 85-92. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 101 

3. The dash is used after the period to separate the title of a 
paragraph from the subject matter ; and is placed after the subject 
matter before the authors name when it is given, thus : Matter.— 
Whatever occupies space is called matter. — Steele. 

4. The dash is used to cut off parenthetical expressions when 
they are too long or too little connected with the subject to admit 
the commas ; as, 'Tis said— and I like the thought— that shooting- 
stars are fire-brands which the angels hurl at evil spirits. 

Place periods, colons, semicolons and dashes. 
1. He said he wanted some Jurassic specimens whatever that 
means sent up to his house 2. It was a Mr. from C 3. He gaVe 
me the but what is this you have my boy? 4. The Village 
Preacher 

Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride 
And e 'en his failings leaned to virtue 's side 
But in his duty prompt at every call 
He watched and wept he prayed and felt for all 

— Goldsmith. 

QUOTATION MARKS. 

Quotation marks are used to enclose what is quoted from 
another in his exact words ; as, Paul said: "I have fought the 
good fight." 

If the quotation contains a quotation within it, the second 
quotation is enclosed in single marks ; as Emerson says : 
" The world is indebted to this gliding, exalted soul for all its pride ; 
' Earth fills her lap with splendors ' not her own." 

Be careful never to misquote. 

COMMA. 

The comma is used as shown below : — 

1. To separate from the rest of the sentence appositive expres- 
sions ; as, the man, a Mr. Johnson, was unwell : I, John, saw 
these things. 

2. To set off vocative expressions ; as, George, you may go ; I 
desire, Susan, that you stay. 

3. To separate from each other the words or phrases of a series 
when all the conjunctions are not expressed ; as, the rain, the 
snow, and the hail have the same origin ; he loves to sleep, to 
dream, and so to pass away the time. 

4. To set off a word repeated for emphasis ; as, Blow, blow, ye 
howHng winds ; verily, verily, I say unto you. 

5. To separate pairs of words ; as, hope and fear, pleasure and 
pain diversify our lives ; the old and the young, the rich and the 
poor, the high and the low are hastening to one fate. 

6. To set off any word, phrase or clause that is out of its 
natural order ; as, at the beginning, he spoke well ; he, to make 
himself understood, used the French tongue. 



102 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

7. To enclose parenthetical expressions when they are not so 
long or so foreign in their nature as to require the dash ; as, he 
came, as he said, to assist me ; the boy, and a fine boy he was, 
came to me at once. 

8. To denote the omission of a word or a phrase ; as, He got the 
money, I, the experience ; Louisville, Ky.; I shall go to-day and 
George, to-morrow. 

9. To separate the members of a compound sentence when of 
some length, but not so long as to require the semicolon ; as, they 
left yesterday at noon, and I shall soon follow them. 

10. To introduce a quotation that is too short to admit of the 
colon ; as, he says, " The wind blows cold." 

Frequently words and phrases, and even clauses, are quoted 
and so closely inwrought with the rest of the sentence that neither 
colon nor comma is used ; as, He is good at " tricks that are vain"; 
you have brought us to a land of "milk and honey." 

11. To enclose an adjective (and sometimes an adverb) clause 
that is not restrictive — that could be omitted without destroying, or 
seriously changing, the sense ;>as, This man, who now owns his 
millions, was once a poor boy without a dollar in the world. 

12. To set off a participial phrase, unless very restrictive, and 
an adjective which follows the noun ; as, The bird, flitting from 
branch to branch, kept up a perfect clatter. 

HYPHEN. 

1. The hyphen is used when necessary to divide a word into 
syllables ; as, con-tempt-i-ble. 

It is so used when an entire word cannot be written at the end of 
a line. Great care should be taken to divide the word correctly. 
Never divide a syllable at the end of a line. Faulty : — The bui- 
lding is almost completed. Corrected as follows : — The build- 
ing is almost completed 

2. The hyphen is also used between the parts of a compound 
word ; as, looking-glass ; pen-holder. 

Not all compound words are so divided. Observation in reading 
is the only guide on this point. 

OTHER MARKS. 

Interrogation point is used at the end of every interrogative sen- 
tence. 

Exclamation point is used after an interjection or an exclamatory 
phrase or sentence ; as, Alas ! what have you done ? To the hills ! 

Parentheses are used to enclose parenthetical remarks when neither 
commas nor dashes could well be used. 

Apostrophe is used: 1. To form the possessive case; as, John's, 
man's. 2. In the plurals of figures, letters, &c. ; as, 6's, m's. 



A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 103 

3. To denote the omission of letters, &c., as, " I'll come," for I 
shall come ; '76 for 1876. 
Brackets are used to show that in any passage quoted from another 
the words enclosed in brackets were supplied by some one other 
than the author ; as. The boy and the man met and he [ who ? ] said 
that he [who?] would break his [whose?] head. 

PUNCTUATE AND CAPITALIZE. 

1. a fine morning Mr link water said nicholas, entering the 
office on his return from the country 2. i never give any reasons 
whats the use of being an Amai and a son of odin if one has always 
to be giving reasoas like a rascally romao lawyer 3. He said i am 
your eternal debtor let us step into this side room walk up stairs 
my friends take care there sir that porcelain whale is worth three 
thousand gold pieces broken it is not worth three pence i leave it to 
your good sense to treat it accordingly now then my friend 4. 
outside outside replied the prisoner pushing the boy before him 
toward the door and looking vacantly over his head say ive gone 
to sleep theyll believe you oh god forgive the wretched man cried 
the boy with a burst of tears thats right thats right said the 
prisoner that 11 help us on this door first. 

EXERCISE IN REPRODUCTION. 

BOADICEA. 

When the British warrior queen, 

Bleeding from the Roman rods. 
Sought with an indignant mien 

Counsel of her country's gods, 

Sage beneath a spreading oak 

Sat the Druid, hoary chief. 
Every burning word he spoke — 

Full of rage and full of grief ; 

' Princess if our aged eyes 
Weep upon thy matchless wrongs 

Tis because resentment ties 
All the terrors of our tongues. 

Rome shall perish, — write that word 

In the blood that she has spilt ; 
Perish, hopeless and abhorred, 

Deep in ruin as in guilt. 

Rome, for empire far renowned, 

Tramples on a thousand states ; 
S3on her pride shall kiss the ground ; 

Hark ! the Gaul is at her gates. 



104 A YEAR IN ENGLISH. 

Other Romans shall arise, 
Heedless of a soldier's name, 

Sounds, not arms, shall win tlie prize, 
Harmony the path to fame. 

Then the progeny that springs 
From the forests of our land 

Armed with thunder, clad with wings, 
Shall a wider world command. 

Regions Ca3sar never knew 

Thy posterity shall sway, 
Where his eagles never flew, 

None invincible as they.' 

Such the bard's prophetic words, 

Pregnant with celestial fire. 
Bending as he swept the chords 

Of his sweet but awful lyre. 

She with all a monarch's pride, 
Felt them in her bosom glow. 

Rushed to battle, fought and died. 
Dying, hurled them at the foe. 

' Ruffians, pitiless, as proud, 
Heaven awards the vengence due ; 

Empire is on us bestowed, 
Shame and ruin wait for you ! ' 

— Cowper. 

THE END. 



■ \^J- 




'^^JcfC 



^x^i 



H^^ 






^Pfe^<j^Wj^--nrV*vevS=<S*^ 







>^'^ 



» 



rtf/" 



■■^i^-^J^ 



•"i€:^M#5>^^~u- 



^t'ti; 



:^«- 









■%i 






iWte>^^ 



t^. 



■^%- 



'^^f-;if^>\^^>^-^^- 



^r%^;^^f^ 



...^J:^:%,^j^. 



;V-t^~ 



-fK 



v^ *^J1 



, >' \^ 



J . 



^J 



JV 






^.^'S.^%.4:^/:^ ^i^.^^^f6^.4!-^'r -^it^':. 



























ti,':^ 









LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




003 238 875 9 



^SS-S^^'gi-S^Ji^^^Siiii^^gSiiggi; 



